* 


' A Is ETH E I A 5 * 




















PightJ^ev. J.V.I^ICARDS, D.V. 



<ft 6 1885 



ALETHEIA; 

OR, 

THE OUTSPOKEN TRUTH 

ON TPjE ALL-IMPORTANT QUESTION 
AN EXPOSITIOISr 

OF THE 

CATHOLIC RULE OF FAITH 

CONTRASTED WITH THE VARIOUS THEORIES OF 

Private and Fallible Interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures. 
With a Full Explanation of the Whole Question of 

INFALLIBILITY, 

And Application of the Principles to the 

DEVELOPMENT 

Of Catholic Doctrine, according to the Needs of the Times. 



BY TH 



/ 



Right Rev. J. D. RICARDS, D 



Bishop of Retimo, and Vicar-Apostolic of the Eastern Vicariate 

Colony. 



, D.D 

•iate of the Cape 



New York, Cincinnati, and St. Louis: 

BENZIGER BROTHERS, 

PRINTERS TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE. 
London : R. Washbourne. Dublin : M. H. Gill & Son. 

1885. 



^ 4 



The Library 
of Congress 

washington 



Copyright, 1885, by BENZIGER BROTHERS. 



<2to jSjta Eminence 
HENRY EDWARD, CARDINAL MANNING, 

Archbishop of Westminster. 



This Book, 

suggested by the study of the "works of his eminence, 
and helped to its 
completion by his words of kind encouragement, 
is dedicated by permission. 

the chief reason which has moved the author to ask of 
his eminence to allow him 
to lay it at his feet is, that his eminence, 
on all occasions where it was possible for him to speak in 
public or private of the land of the author's birth, 
has borne willing testimony 
to the indomitable faith and generosity and pious zeal of 
<£atijoltc JSrelctutr. 

IT SEEMED TO HIM, THEREFORE, 
THAT A BOOK WHICH HE EARNESTLY HOPES WILL SERVE 
IN SOME DEGREE TO KEEP ALIVE THE PIETY OF ' ' THE SEA-DIVIDED 
GAEL," COULD HAVE NO MORE 
FITTING PATRON THAN AN ENGLISH CARDINAL, WHO 
WATCHES WITH UNTIRING INTEREST AND PATERNAL AFFECTION THE 
PROGRESS OF THE IRISH CATHOLIC RACE 
THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE BRITISH EMPIRE, AND THE GREAT 
CONTINENT OF THE WEST. 



Qrahamstown, South Africa, 
January 12th, 1885. 



Unlarattou* 



In all I have written in this book, I have been most careful, while 
endeavoring to popularize Catholic teaching, to keep strictly to the 
doctrines of the Church, and to the Definitions and Expositions of the 
successors of St. Peter, charged by our Divine Lord to confirm the 
faith of the brethren. Should I have erred, however, in any points, 
I submit my involuntary mistakes to the judgment and correction of 
the Holy See, 

* J. D. RICARDS, Ep. and Vic. Ap. 



PREFACE. 



I have called this book " Aletheia" rather than "The 
Truth," because there is more in the Greek word than is 
conveyed in its English synonym applicable to my un- 
dertaking. I want not only to tell what I conscientiously 
believe to be the truth upon the most important subject 
that can possibly engage the attention of beings created 
for eternal life ; but to tell it openly, and in a way that I 
hope will attract public attention. I wish most earnestly 
to bring what I have to say on the Catholic Rule of Faith 
into the open light, that it may have a chance of holding 
its own amongst the many new theories on religion which 
now attract the attention of the reading world. 

I take to myself no credit for saying again what has 
been so much better said thousands of times over by 
really learned men : but I cannot help feeling that what 
the old Faith has to say for itself, must be said in a way 
that will fall in with the taste of the times. I would 
give anything I possess to write with the power and elo- 
quence of those who fascinate the public in favor of 
modern theories of unbelief. Wanting in all but the 
desire to shine in this attractive light, I would at least, 
by my efforts to leave the well-beaten track of theologi- 
cal ponderosity, show how heartily I entered into the 
views of writers who maintain, that if religion is to have 
fair play, her cause must be pleaded in a fashion that 



6 



PREFACE. 



will not at any rate frighten, by its rigid precision, and 
alarming profundity, and copiousness of matter, those 
who may be disposed to hear what it has to offer to a 
generation tired of everything that is food for serious 
thought. 

It must be apparent to every one who reads the lead- 
ing magazines and reviews, that there is no place in them 
for the teaching of the venerable Catholic Church. This 
teaching is simply ignored ; and the impression naturally 
left on the public mind is that there is nothing to be 
added to " the old story." Those who write in the in- 
terests of the fashionable theories feel, as by a sort of 
instinct, that if they dwell for a moment on the conserva- 
tive principles of Catholicism, they run the risk of shut^ 
ting themselves out from any share of public attention ; 
and hence they write learnedly on the guesses of the 
scientists, without the least allusion to the doctrines of 
the old Church. 

I have a hope that if, from the absence of any attempt 
to display scholastic learning, this book is looked through 
even cursorily, it may possibly help to revive the tradi- 
tions of the faith : and by its circulation, which promises 
to be large, stimulate really gifted men to present relig- 
ious food to the public, in a shape that may excite an ap- 
petite for religious teaching. 

We already possess in the Catholic Church works on 
all branches of religion, that satisfy every demand of the 
learned and the studious. The supply of most valuable 
works on dogmatic and moral theology, filled with the 
wealth of patristic lore, and the almost inspired learning 
of renowned doctors, is superabundant. Theological 
students nowadays are much more favored in this re- 
spect than were those of the last generation. They who 



PREFACE. 



7 



can look back, thirty or forty years, to their college life 
will remember how difficult it was, at least in the British 
Isles and America and the Colonies, to secure able com- 
mentaries on the old masters, that applied sound prin- 
ciples to the affairs of present life. And now the 
treatises which are teeming from the press, create a 
veritable embarras de richesse which often perplexes 
and bewilders the student of theology. 

Works of instruction and devotion in English abound, 
not only in Catholic lending libraries, but in the houses 
of Catholics of every degree who care to read, affording 
the faithful every information they can desire about 
Catholic doctrine and worship and practices. The pious 
and the seriously disposed read them with avidity ; and 
I thick it will not be asserting too much to say, that never, 
in the whole history of the Church, was there an age, in 
which the well-disposed body of English-speaking Catho- 
lics throughout the world, was better instructed than at 
present. 

Still there is a want, a serious and grave want for the 
many, and that is works written on Catholic faith and 
doctrine that fall in with the spirit and taste of the 
times. Say what we will, " preach, exhort in season and 
out of season," men even of good will are influenced by 
the prevailing sentiment and fashion : they will not read 
what is generally considered dry and hard ; and so for 
the great bulk of Catholics these books brimful of 
learning and piety, written with admirable precision and 
care, are a dead letter. 

It is a truism to say that there is no use in a book if it 
is not read : but, in the practical experience of the world, 
it is a fact that the very best books on religion are seldom 
opened by the great majority of Catholic laymen and 



8 



PREFACE. 



women. Ecclesiastics, religious, the pious and well dis- 
posed, who keep their hearts " undented from the world," 
revel in the rich repast prepared for them by Catholic 
writers of surpassing ability; but the crowd, who are 
drawn away by the example of a frivolous, thoughtless, 
and work-a-day society, care more for trashy literature 
which furnishes the ordinary topics of conversation, than 
for the wisdom of a St. Thomas or a St. Augustine, set 
generously before them in ever-multiplying translations 
and handy manuals. 

The great want for the multitude is something that 
will suit the prevailing taste, arguments briefly and 
tersely put, illustrations that may amuse, principles in- 
timated rather than laboriously built up on solid and 
unmistakable grounds, exhortations in the style of Thack- 
eray, genial anecdotes, and now and then a burst of 
vigorous and glowing writing that will penetrate the 
soul, when it is as it were off its guard, and beguiled by 
the pleasing style, into something like interest and atten- 
tion. 

We may deplore that the generality of people have 
not more sense : but as St. Bernard used to say to his re- 
ligious, when exhorting them on charitable patience with 
their brethren, and tenderness for their weaknesses, — 
" ~We must take people as they are, and not as we wish 
them to be." 

This is the thought that I have tried always to keep 
before me in writing this book ; and my only regret is 
that I have had neither the imagination, nor the power 
of mind, nor the varied learning, to carry out successfully 
the main view. Still I believe that what I have at- 
tempted is a step in the right direction ; and I flatter my- 
self that some will glance over the pages of " Aletheia," 



PREFACE. 



9 



who would barely open one of the ablest books in our 
language that treated in the ordinary way religious and 
social questions. 

I say so much in deprecation of severe criticism. I 
hope that my learned readers will take the will for the 
deed, and not " sit on me " too heavily. I wanted to 
write something that might be read by the general pub- 
lic, something that might be easily understood, and that 
might interest those who do not care for serious reading. 
I am convinced that the only way to success in my at- 
tempt was to aim at least as well as I could at consulting 
the prevailing sentiment. If I have failed, I must only 
take the blame on my poor abilities, certainly not on 
my want of earnestness and disposition to labor with all 
my might for so good a purpose. 

I remember reading somewhere, I think in the Dublin 
JRevieiv, many years ago, that the success of men like 
Spurgeon, and Moody, and Sankey, in drawing enthusi- 
astic crowds around them, was owing to the fact that they 
discarded "the pulpit twang." It was not certainly in 
any great power of unfolding original conceptions of the 
Divine message. There is more solid food for the hun- 
gry soul in an ordinary Catholic book of devotion, than in 
volumes of the sensational, often frothy, and sometimes 
slangy exhortations, of these popular preachers. I have 
read many of their sermons, picturing to myself the 
energy and tone and action of the speakers as I have 
heard them described ; and contrasted them painfully with 
the ordinary lectures of a spiritual retreat, or the exhorta- 
tions of a Catholic "mission." There were startling 
things no doubt forcibly expressed by the American 
preachers and the celebrated man who rules the Taber- 
nacle ; but I missed the overwhelming majesty of truth, 



10 



PREFACE. 



which awes and subdues into a lasting conversion those 
who in a good spirit assist at these devotional exercises 
in the Catholic Church. 

These men, Moody and Sankey, and Spurgeon, sim- 
ply accommodated their style to the popular taste. Gifted 
with a bright imagination, and prepared by careful study 
of human nature, and of nature in the wide universe, 
knowing well the habits and ways of the restless age, and 
able to express themselves readily as the ideas came, it is 
no wonder that thousands and tens of thousands listened 
to them with something like rapture. Instead of the 
solid divinity carefully built up on sound foundations, 
and divided into a multitude of points, each supported 
by proofs and multiplied texts of Scripture, and this de- 
livered in a solemn tone with a rhythm peculiarly its 
own, these bold preachers rushed in medias res, seizing 
at once, in a business sort of way, on striking points, and 
smote and hacked at vice and folly with such untiring 
energy, that huge crowds listened with amazement, and 
believed themselves converted. 

I do not think of proposing this peculiar style of pop- 
ular preaching as a model for Catholic writers, who wish 
to have their works read by the general public. It would 
be hardly healthy reading, and might, if it kindled a glow 
of warm sentiment in the minds of the readers, be proba- 
bly followed by dangerous reaction, and weariness and 
disgust. But I say, that this accommodation to popular 
taste, shows clearly what may be done, if those to whom 
God has given superior light and knowledge and earnest 
piety, will devote time and study and care to express the 
great truths of Catholicity in a way that will gratify the 
prevailing feeling. There can be nothing wrong in thus 
catering for the general public. It is only an application 



PREFACE. 



11 



of the practice of St. Paul towards " the little ones of 
Christ." " I gave you milk to drink, not meat." (1 
Cor. iii. 2.) 

If I claim for myself something original, or " uncom- 
mon" as the Americans would call it, in the conception 
of the book, this pretension will receive its full set-off in 
the poorness of the execution. 

But the truths I have tried to announce in an original 
form are as old as Christianity. And why it may natu- 
rally be asked do I press them on the attention of the 
public now? Is it to stir up discord, and to trouble con- 
sciences that are quite satisfied with the old ways on 
which they have tramped peaceably onwards as their 
fathers did before them ? Certainly not to excite any- 
thing like discord. Quarrels, dissensions and their terri- 
ble consequences are so vividly set before us by St. Paul, 
as some of the worst crimes that men can commit, that 
I could not wilfully set such an object before me without 
grievous sin. Such an idea must be revolting to any 
man whose mission it is to preach the gospel of Christian 
charity and love of brethren. If some Christian min- 
isters fiercely denounce Papists, it is only because they 
hate the evil thing associated in their minds with 
Popery. But anything like stirring up strife and en- 
mity and discord amongst brethren must be particularly 
revolting to one who feels that he is fast drawing near to 
the awful judgment, and on whose soul the shadows of the 
dread future are rapidly falling, obscuring, in their steadily 
growing length and depth, the vanities of this world. 

It is that thought of the future, towards which so 
many millions are drifting recklessly and indifferently, 
and who are amusing their fancies with the wild dreams 
of incredulity, that has most of all urged me to say out 



12 



PKEFACE. 



boldly and distinctly — that there is but one true Faith, 
and that without Faith it is impossible to please God. 

Would that I might hope to trouble consciences which 
are at times uneasy and anxious about the necessary con- 
ditions to salvation ! Then indeed the dread thought of 
having to give an account of my stewardship as a pastor 
of souls, would be less appalling : for we are assured by the 
inspired prophet, that — " They that instruct many to jus- 
tice shall shine as stars for all eternity." (Daniel xii. 3,) 

If I could reasonably hope that the doctrine, conveyed 
in the way I have marked out for myself might, through 
the Divine mercy, stir up those who sleep the heavy sleep 
of indifference, and dream listlessly the dreams of imagi- 
nation about God and the future, " to labor for the one 
thing necessary" — I might console myself with the belief 
that their justice would plead for me with a merciful Re- 
deemer, and thus enable me to " stand with great con- 
stancy" (Wisdom v. 1) in the presence of the Judge. 

But I know too well the overwhelming power of pre- 
judices to indulge much in hopes of this kind. Possibly 
a few earnest souls, fixing their attention on the learned 
and distinguished thinkers of this age, whom I quote so 
frequently in this book — Cardinals Manning and New- 
man — may be led to follow their example, and like them, 
to give up all things to do the blessed will of God. 

Certainly there never was a period since the days of 
the revolt in the sixteenth century, when what Cardinal 
Newman calls the great traditionary lie against the Church 
of God was more subdued than it is at present. Thought- 
ful men are watching too anxiously the desolating effects 
of free- thought and its probable consequences, to trouble 
themselves much about the old calumnies associated with 
antichrist and the scarlet woman. Popery and the 



PEEFACE. 



13 



abominations is not now the appetizing morsel it used to 
be — "the Cheshire cheese of parsons," as Sydney Smith 
calls it, just the thing to relieve the inward man after a 
heavy meal of sapless divinity. People of ordinary read- 
ing don't care for it now, unless it receives a peculiar 
flavor from highly spiced narrative. 

The question of the day seems to be narrowing itself, 
in all lands to this one point. Shall we believe in the 
Divine authority of the Infallible Church, or shall we 
adopt the irresistible consequence of free-thought, and 
plunge headlong into Eationalism and Agnosticism ? It 
is evident to all such minds that mere human authority, 
substituted for the voice of God and His everlasting 
Church, and the religion of sentiment and pious feeling, 
will not prevail in the conflict between belief and unbe- 
lief, that is every year becoming more imminent. 

One who ponders deeply on the signs of the times 
would be almost forced to the conviction that the period 
of " the great revolt" is not far distant, when those who 
deny Christ, and despise His ordinances shall know Him 
no more, and shall be found in the ranks of His eternal 
enemies. 

If men would only think on these most grave and seri- 
ous matters — think calmly, and with minds free from 
angry prejudice and passion and the pride of life, and the 
desperate resolve to perish forever rather than look in 
the direction of hateful Popery, a better day might even 
yet dawn for humanity than it has known for many hun- 
dred years ; and out of the heavy clouds and darkness, that 
are fast settling down on this unfortunate world might 
rise again the sun of peace and love and brotherhood. 

The senseless cry of "Liberty, Equality, and Frater- 
nity" and the Utopian schemes of socialism and com- 



14 



PEEFACE. 



munism would then find a true meaning in a united 
Christendom, and men would behold with admiration the 
realization of the dream of the just Hebrew who mourned 
over what appeared to him the inevitable ruin of his 
people, and was afterwards gladdened by their marvellous 
delivery. " That was a day of darkness and danger," says 
the inspired writer of the book of Esther, — " a day of 
tribulation and distress and great fear upon the earth," 
when Mardochai, the wealthy and powerful Jew of 
Susan, seemed to hear in his dream " voices and tumults 
and thunders and earthquakes" — " as the two great dra- 
gons came forth ready to fight one against the other." — 
" And the nation of the just was troubled fearing their 
own evils, and was prepared for death. And they cried 
to God : and as they were crying, a little fountain grew 
into a very great river and abounded with many waters. 
The light and the sun rose up, and the humble were ex- 
alted, and they devoured the glorious." (Esther xi. 5-11.) 

If men would only think and pray, then this great 
conflict between Infidelity and Christianity might be in 
part averted, or the " time of the fierce struggle shortened 
on account of the elect ;" and the simple ways of God's 
merciful Providence might change again the face of the 
world. 

This is my hope, this is my main intention in opening 
the little fountain of my thoughts. May God keep this 
intention " lightsome" before me at all times ! And then 
whether success or failure attends my feeble efforts, 
whether the spring will close through neglect, or by the 
labors of others more gifted than I, abound in many 
waters, the whole body will be lightsome, and pleasing in 
the eyes of Him who shall judge the secrets of men by 
Jesus Christ. (Rom. ii. 16.) 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PA&E 

Dedication, 3 

Preface, 5 

Introduction, 17 

I. Necessity of Revelation, 37 

II. The True Sense of Revelation cannot be determined by 

the Bible alone, 53 

III. Private Judgment : what it really means, ... 74 

IV. Vagaries of Private Judgment, 90 

V. Reasonable Faith and Non- Catholic Credulity, . . 109 

VI. "The Pride of Life," ....... 130 

VII. Faith, 150 

VIII. Hope, 165 

IX. Charity 182 

X. Authoritative Teaching outside the Catholic Church, . 195 

XI. General Views of Infallibility: what it is and what it 

is not, . 213 

XII. The Infallibility of the Catholic Church, . . .229 

XIII. Infallibility of the Pope 248 

XIV. Application of the Dogma of Papal Infallibility to the 

Immaculate Conception, 266 

XV. " Modern Romish Corruptions" and Development under 

the Guidance of the Spirit of Truth, ... 282 

Conclusion, 298 



INTRODUCTION. 



" What is truth ?" So said Pilate to Christ when, from 
the few words addressed to him by the great Teacher, 
the idea of a " kingdom not of this world " flashed upon 
his astonished soul, and for a moment obscured his am- 
bitious cravings after earthly power and the friendship of 
Csesar. It was the Divinity that stirred within the 
haughty Roman when he found himself in the presence 
of Him who said " Let light be," and caused the invol- 
untary sigh that rose from his troubled bosom to find 
expression in words that indicated " a longing after im- 
mortality." But the passing impulse, while it impressed 
him with the innocence and august character of the 
accused, did not leave behind it the sense of responsibility 
which belonged to his high ofhce. Pilate condemned 
Him in whom he could "find no cause" to a cruel death ; 
and while he washed his hands, vainly hoping by this 
ceremony to cleanse his soul from the awful guilt of judi- 
cial murder, he cast away forever the grace that might 
have saved him. The sad fate of the unhappy Prsetor 
brings vividly before me the case of too many who, awed 
and amazed at the calm unchanging attitude of the 
Catholic Church amid the revolutions and uprisings of 
society, are forced to say within themselves, " Perhaps 
the Church might be able to satisfy our doubts and per- 
plexities about the truth .;" and can scarcely resist the in> 



18 



INTRODUCTION. 



pulse which prompts them to interrogate her : but who, 
even while their lips are expressing the burning thought, 
allow prejudices and the spirit of the world to carry them 
beyond the reach of her answer. There is no thoughtful 
man who, from the circumstances of his position and sur- 
roundings, has been led to fix his eyes on the Catholic 
Church but must have felt the almost irresistible impulse 
to question her about the great problem of eternal life. 
~No matter how loud and fierce may be the outcry of her 
enemies, proclaiming her imagined enormities and cla- 
moring for her destruction, the thought must have often 
suggested itself to him : If there is truth to be obtained 
in this world concerning the dark future, she at least 
might tell me something that can be relied upon as cer- 
tain. Of course I know that the great mass of mankind, 
who are completely absorbed in the affairs of this world, 
never heed the Church except when it comes in the way 
of their business, or its teaching clashes with their pet 
theories of material progress or social happiness. Just as 
Pilate said to our Divine Lord, " Am I a Jew 1" so might 
they be supposed to say, if the position or claims of the 
Church were obtruded on their attention, " What have 
we to do with the Church ? or what do we care about the 
teaching of this Church which almost ignores the only 
matters worthy the attention of rational human beings % 
Are we, like superstitious and weak-minded dolts, to 
trouble ourselves about shadows, when every moment of 
our precious time is little enough to enable us to fight our 
way through the stern realities that surround us ?" 

I do not mean to say that such as these concern them- 
selves even about the possibility of supernatural truth 
and the objects of Faith. They always wear the eager 
expression of the crowds one meets with in the heart of 



INTRODUCTION. 



19 



huge London, who are ever hurrying onward, looking 
neither to the right nor to the left, and who would hardly 
stop to gaze upwards if the proximate signs of the day of 
doom were manifesting themselves in the skies. 

I speak of men who, though heartily set on the acqui- 
sition of wealth and honor and position, have not yet 
been transformed into mere machines for the working out 
of elaborate calculations on the rise and fall of the funds, 
and financial schemes of all-absorbing interest, and who 
only slacken speed to throw in the necessary supplies, or 
shut off steam to oil or polish, in a hurried holiday, the 
overworked organism which is the vehicle of their anxious 
thoughts. But there are many steeped in wordliness who, 
notwithstanding the attractions of the present ever-vary- 
ing scene, feel at times a real interest in the great question 
of immortality. They love the world and the things 
that are in the world, it is true, but a sort of instinct 
superior to sense, though uninformed by Faith, teaches 
them, like the philosophers of paganism, that they shall 
never die. 

Men of this class are superior to the temptations which, 
under the guise of scientific theories, amuse the fancy of 
the giddy multitude. They feel, sometimes at least, that 
they have been created for a nobler purpose than to wal- 
low in sensuality, and to perish like the unreasoning ani- 
mal or the flower of the field, and they are convinced that 
man, who, by his natural powers of mind, can read the 
great book spread out before us in this vast universe, may 
somehow or other catch a glimpse of the Infinite Author, 
and of the end for which He has called into existence 
beings made to His own image and likeness. To such as 
these the guesses of the scientists of our day are only 
amusing specimens of flights of the imagination. They 



20 



INTRODUCTION. 



are too wise and too serious to attach any importance to 
these airy nothings beyond the passing pleasure which 
this ingenious and original style of reasoning and fine 
writing naturally excites in minds formed by education 
and cultivated taste to relish the article. Their common- 
sense revolts at the bare idea of mere triflers in theology, 
presuming on their knowledge of physical science to im- 
prove on the teaching of the Gospel. If they have not 
studied very attentively the life of Christ and the history 
of Christianity, they know enough to convince them that 
no man ever spoke like Him, or effected so marvellous a 
revolution in the thoughts and feelings and purposes and 
actions of mankind. They really desire to know some- 
thing definite and trustworthy about the future life which 
may give a fixed direction to their most grave thoughts, 
and may sustain their hopes when they shall be reduced 
to the sad but inevitable necessity of parting with every- 
thing they have loved and treasured here below. The 
simple question, " What is truth?" suggests to them even 
more than is generally dreamt of in their philosophy, and 
leads them into depths deeper far than ever formed the 
subject of their most recondite financial speculations. 

The great point is, do they really care to find out, at the 
expense of time and meditation, a satisfactory answer to the 
doubts and fears that perplex them? They believe that 
they are thoroughly in earnest in their inquiries. The 
possible issues are too dreadful, they think, to allow 
them to be satisfied with any other than a sound con- 
viction. But when they are met, at the very outset of 
their explorations, by the necessity of Faith in a Divine 
Kevelation, when they are told, in the most learned Chris- 
tian books, and by every teacher of Christianity to whom 
they apply for information, that they must believe in 



INTRODUCTION. 



21 



certain dogmas which neither the most profound treatises 
nor the most eloquent preachers can explain, that they 
must receive on trust alone the very elements of this 
Faith, they experience an insurmountable difficulty in 
accepting the teaching. " Why," they exclaim, " should 
we, gifted with reason and common-sense, yield a blind 
submission to fallible men like ourselves, who candidly 
confess that they know no more than we do about the full 
meaning of the Divine message? There are matters 
contained in it of the highest possible significance. A 
child can understand them. There is a future life of 
eternal happiness or eternal misery set before us, mainly 
dependent on the good or bad use of the present life : 
but this is involved in mysteries which no mind can 
fathom. How then can we receive with undo ub ting 
assent these practical conclusions, when the premises are 
altogether hidden from our view ? These books and teach- 
ers tell us of a God, the rewarder of virtue and the 
avenger of iniquity, who sees and 4 notes down as in a 
book ' all our thoughts and desires and actions ; and yet 
these guides cannot explain satisfactorily the nature of 
this God, or how He knows all things, or why He should 
give Himself the trouble of perpetually watching us. 
What benefit is it to Him to consign some to eternal per- 
dition, and to raise others to eternal happiness? This 
very eternity of joy or misery is in itself a mystery. It 
is easy to say ' for ever and ever ; ' but when we try to 
grasp duration without end, the mind breaks down hope- 
lessly in the effort. How can any sort of happiness be 
without end, when we know by sad experience that the 
most perfect delights grow wearisome in their protrac- 
tion? And as regards the torments of which you tell us, 
our very instincts rise up in abhorrence of anything so 



22 



INTRODUCTION. 



inconceivably terrible. And this atonement — what does 
it mean ? How could the great Being who has made all 
things suffer and die to redeem us ? Where is the sense 
or reason of the All-Holy and Innocent suffering for the 
guilty ? What is the Trinity of Persons, the same undi- 
vided nature — one the stern Upholder of an inflexible 
law, and another the Redeemer, and another perfectly 
distinct from each, the Sanctifler? If this myste- 
rious book, to which you refer us, and which you say 
contains in its pages the infallible truth, tells us of things 
beyond the comprehension of the most gifted intelli- 
gence, may not what we consider the practical results 
of this system be also wrapt in mystery ? May not the 
whole thing be an allegory — a dreamy mythology dim]y 
perceptible perhaps to the Oriental imagination, but ab- 
surd and preposterous to the logical minds and the sound 
common-sense of these days of enlightenment ? " 

What shall I say to all these difficulties ? Simply this : 
If you do not admit the authority of a living, speaking, 
and infallible guide, they are absolutely unanswerable. 

No matter how conclusively we may prove the neces- 
sity of a Divine Revelation, and the fact that such a 
Revelation has been made, when there is question of in- 
terpreting and defining clearly and distinctly the Divine 
message, if we have not such a guide to teach us, the 
message from above cannot command the assent and en- 
tire conviction of reasonable men. 

A few plain words will, I believe, establish this truth. 
The object of this book is only to develop it. 

I do not mean to enter into learned disquisitions, but 
to treat the whole subject in a popular way. 

For men of ordinary intelligence who really desire to 
know what is before them after death, even the brief ex- 



INTRODUCTION. 



23 



planation of the point which I am about to set before the 
public in this Introduction might be sufficient. If, how- 
ever, they will give themselves the trouble to push the 
inquiry farther, they may rely on my assurance that they 
will not be puzzled or confused by reading the following 
chapters. The entire matter is in a nutshell. Thousands 
and tens of thousands of books have been written on con- 
troverted points that affect the argument in its applica- 
tion, or, as the schoolmen say, a posteriori ; but the prin- 
ciple is so plain and obvious a priori, or considered in 
itself, that I may say in reference to it what the Prophet 
has said about the teaching of the long-expected of 
nations. It will open to all who are in earnest in their 
inquiry after truth " a way in which not even fools may 
err." It is emphatically " the Way, the Truth, and the 
Life" for men of good will who look forward, after this 
transitory life, to a glorious immortality. 

Supposing the necessity of a Divine Revelation, and the 
fact that such a Revelation has been made to the world, — 
points on which all Christians are agreed, but which I 
mean to prove in the first chapter for the satisfaction of 
unbelievers, — and supposing further that the substance of 
this Revelation is contained in the Bible, I contend that 
the mysterious truths therein set forth cannot reasonably 
be accepted unless we have an infallible guide to teach 
us the meaning that must necessarily be attached to the 
words of the Divine message. In other words, unless 
we have an infallible teacher living and speaking in our 
midst, and vested by God with authority to explain 
with unerring certainty the meaning of the written 
word inspired by Him, it is altogether unreasonable to 
ask any one to believe with the entire assent of the in- 
tellect whatever that Divine message contains, when the 



24 



INTRODUCTION. 



words seem to convey a meaning that transcends our 
reason. 

It seems to me that this contention is unassailable, and 
that it is so clear to common-sense as scarcely to need a 
proof. 

As long as an infallible authority such as I have men- 
tioned is rejected, and we are absolutely free to form our 
own opinion or judgment on a passage of the Bible that 
seems to convey a meaning beyond our comprehension, 
then I would say that it is our duty to try to find out 
another meaning that can be understood and which the 
words will bear. 

The real ground of Faith in the Word of God is the 
absolute trutli of God. Whatever He says must, from 
the very nature of an infinitely perfect Being, be abso- 
lutely true. God would cease to be God if He could 
deceive us. But when His inspired word seems to pro- 
pose something that, in its nature, is beyond the capacity 
of the human mind, a grave doubt arises as to whether 
we have understood His words correctly. The presump- 
tion unquestionably is, supposing man left to his own 
unaided powers to determine the true meaning, in favor 
of a sense that recommends itself to reason. Take any 
of those mysteries which I have already mentioned as 
t standing in the way of an earnest inquirer after truth, — 
the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, the eternity 
of rewards and punishments, — and suppose that learned 
linguists assure us, as very many do, that the words will, 
in the original, and according to the generally received 
laws of grammar, bear a sense that is easily understood : 
we would be bound to prefer the intelligible to the in- 
comprehensible. That the majority of Christians who 
are not Catholics have inclined the other way is owing, 



INTRODUCTION. 



25 



not to their principles, but to the traditions of the Faith 
derived from the Church. The more faithfully these 
traditions have been preserved, either through a sem- 
blance of authoritative teaching, or through creeds and 
formularies, and rites, and prayers, — the property of the 
old Church, — the stronger will be their leaning to mys- 
terious dogma. But when these links with the past are 
severed altogether, when sham authority is openly de- 
rided, and the craving after novelty has substituted 
forms of worship unknown to antiquity, then the claims 
of reason as opposed to mysticism begin to show them- 
selves unmistakably and persistently. What more com- 
mon nowadays than to hear men who have inherited or 
acquired a bitter hostility to everything in religion that 
bears the slightest resemblance to Catholicity, boast 
proudly, that they have shaken off the trammels of slavish 
superstition, and believe only what recommends itself to 
their reason and judgment ? Who that not only denies 
but even ridicules the idea of an infallible human guide, 
when inspired by the abiding spirit of truth, can condemn 
those who make this boast? If there is no infallible 
guide, then, whatever may be believed or imagined con- 
cerning the inspiration of Scripture, the meaning attri- 
buted to this written record is merely a human opinion 
and no more. The opinion may have been suggested by 
the text : but where the text is confessedly susceptible of 
opposite and contradictory significations, the lesson or the 
dogma ascribed to the mute words is the outcome of 
fallible thought ; and therefore cannot be forced on the 
conviction of any reasonable man. 

It is all very well for those who are pressed with this 
argument to say that the sense which their particular de- 
nomination attaches to it is the correct one. They may 



26 



INTRODUCTION. 



think so, no doubt, or otherwise they would not imperil 
their salvation by clinging to an interpretation which 
they conscientiously believe to be false. But let them 
clearly understand, that, after all, it is only one view, and 
that others conscientiously believe that their own view, 
which is diametrically opposed to the first, is the only one 
which they think deserves to be recognized as the teach- 
ing of God. 

If there was unanimity amongst Christians on the fun- 
damental mysteries of Revelation, there might be some 
semblance of reason in maintaining that what all agreed 
to receive as the word of God must be the very truth. 
But this apparently safe conclusion is only a shadow at 
most; for once the revealed word has been accepted, not 
because God has certainly declared it, but because fallible 
men have agreed to stamp it with their approval, it has 
been robbed of the substantial ground on which alone it 
could challenge and command the assent of Faith. Out- 
side the Catholic Church, there is no dogma beyond the 
grasp of the finite intelligence of man that is not thus 
disputed, and reduced to the level of a mere human 
speculation. The Divinity of Christ, the very essence 
of Revealed Religion is, as it is well known, in this way 
deprived of every element of a supernatural character. 
Unitarians and Trinitarians may pity each other; but 
both, from a Catholic point of view, are equally deserv- 
ing of compassion. Even the Trinitarian who believes 
with the Catholic Church, that there are three persons 
really distinct in the Divine nature, and that Christ is 
God, is no better, as regards Divine Faith, than his 
learned opponent who scoffs at the idea of anything 
which appears to him so monstrous and incredible. And 
the reason is, that by cutting himself off from the living 



INTRODUCTION. 



27 



infallible teacher, lie has no means of knowing with cer- 
tainty what God has actually taught, and consequently 
cannot build his belief on the only basis of supernatural 
Faith, the veracity of the great Being who he thinks has 
revealed this mystery. It is often said that there are 
many Protestants who call themselves Catholics, who be- 
lieve nearly every dogma believed by the Catholic Church, 
and that therefore they are to all intents and purposes 
genuine Catholics. But this is a great mistake. Sup- 
posing they really did believe every article in the Catho- 
lic creed except, say, the supremacy of the Yicar of Christ 
on earth, their faith would improperly be called Faith, 
because they do not believe these truths on the only 
ground on which real Faith can rest. They may have 
gleaned their belief, with laborious and painstaking in- 
dustry, from the writings of the saints and Fathers of the 
primitive Church ; but every article of their creed is as 
different from the Faith of these venerable witnesses of 
the truth, as are the wild and fanciful surmises of a Jules 
Yerne compared with the mathematical precision of as- 
tronomers like Leverrier or the sound principles of New- 
ton. It is time that all this dilettanteism in religion, this 
application of aesthetic tastes to the direction of con- 
science, this aping at mere ceremonial however venera- 
ble in its antiquity and however sanctified by real objec- 
tive Faith, should be estimated at its jjroper value. I do 
not find fault with the frivolities of fashion, as long as 
they are restrained by a sense of moral purity and self- 
respect. People may wear sunflowers, or the blossom 
of the Protea grandiflora, on their bosoms, or if they are 
so inclined, and the inexorable laws of correct taste, as 
interpreted by the modistes and professors of the Oscar 
"Wilde type, will have it so, they may wear cauliflowers, 



28 



INTRODUCTION. 



or cabbages for that matter, on their heads for anything 
I care. Of course I could not help feeling sorry that 
any one I cared for would make himself or herself ridicu- 
lous. It is fashion, ever-changing and capricious fashion, 
that regulates all these things ; and there is no pretense 
to any higher law. This has its uses, and when people 
have so far overcome their fear of ridicule as to yield a 
blind obedience to a despotic rule of this kind, they are 
giving an impulse to languishing trade, and encouraging 
honest industry that might, without this stimulus, pine 
away and perish. But if the devotees of fashion were to 
advance claims to a higher sanction than this petty tyrant 
can urge to frighten tender susceptibilities, and quote 
Scripture, and enlist the Divine Wrath on their side, and 
try in this way to compel the acquiescence of society to 
their dictation, it would be scarcely necessary for the 
preacher to accentuate the indignation of public opinion 
against such an abuse of power. 

This may seem trifling with a grave subject; but it 
seems to me that a sharp whack of the lath of ridicule is 
the best way to direct attention to the absurdity of at- 
tempting to mould and determine the creeds and forms 
of worship by individual views of the fitness of things, 
as opposed to the clear teaching of legitimate authority. 
If they who undertake to rule consciences with a despot- 
ism which even an infallible guide would not assume, 
will only speak the truth and say to their discij)les, 
" This is our view, this is, as far as we can judge, the cor- 
rect thing," then their position will be understood ; and if 
good people are disposed to pay the same deference to 
the ipse dixit of these guides, as the multitude show to 
fashion, who would care to find fault either with the self- 
conceit of the teachers or the docility of their subjects 1 



INTRODUCTION". 



29 



Men are opening their eyes more and more every day 
to the true nature of this assumption of Divine authority 
in the determination not only of the forms of worship, 
but of dogma. "When the authority established by Jesus 
Christ is treated with contempt, and when men who are 
not Catholics substitute for the infallible voice of the 
Vicar of Christ their own interpretation of God's written 
word, and attempt to bind down those who listen to them 
by blind obedience, as if they were absolutely certain of 
the true meaning of the written word, sensible and 
thoughtful observers see plainly that this assumed author- 
ity is only human, and soon begin to cry out plainly that 
the credulity of the public must not be imposed upon 
by unreal names. 

There was a dispute, in July 1884, in the Wesleyan Con- 
ference held at Burslem on an important dogma of re- 
vealed religion — the nature of punishment in a future 
state. A Mr. Frankland, a reverend gentleman of high 
character and long service in this communion, expressed 
views on this subject which rather startled the other 
members of the conference. Some were of opinion that 
he should retire from the ministry, as his views were 
unconstitutional. When, after a warm discussion, he 
succeeded in obtaining a hearing, and went on, notwith- 
standing interruption, in defending his position, Dr. 
Osborne put the case fairly. He said that it was not a 
question as between men and the New Testament, but 
between them and their standards of belief. They were 
Wesleyans, and Wesleyans on the distinct acceptance 
of the Wesleyan standard interpretations of Scripture. 
In other words, he maintained, we have made up our 
minds to accept a defined but fallible interpretation, or 
the opinions which the founders of the sect had agreed 



30 



INTRODUCTION. 



amongst themselves to accept. " We must be content," 
he said, " to meet the charge that we are following the 
teaching of a man, rather than that of the New Testa- 
ment;" and concluded by moving that Mr. Frankland, 
being no longer obedient to this human teaching, which 
was the only ground for their existence as a distinct 
religions body, should cease to be a member. Mr. 
Frankland, however, was not excommunicated or ex- 
pelled, but merely requested, as long as he remained a 
Wesleyan minister, not to propound his views in public 
or private, in pulpit or in press, or say anything further 
about his own personal convictions on the all-important 
subject of the sanction of the Divine law. Here is a 
distinct and clear admission, that it is not Revelation 
which guides the religious views of this respectable body 
of Christians, but a mere human interpretation of the 
meaning of God's written word ; and that no individual 
member of that association has a right, however strong 
may be his faith in the individual guidance of the Holy 
Spirit, to propound views that are not in accordance 
with the decided and fixed opinions of his brethren in 
the ministry. What a comment on the hard things 
which are so constantly stated publicly against the 
Church, as if she, like the Pharisees of old, incurred 
the wrath of God for " teaching doctrines and precepts 
of men" ! (Mark vii. 7.) "When Daniel O'Connell called 
attention, many years ago, to the glaring discrepancy be- 
tween the avowed right of individual judgment and the 
despotic definitions of the "Wesleyan Conference, he gave 
great offence to those who conscientiously believed, not- 
withstanding his proofs to the contrary, that their faith 
was founded, not on human teaching at all, but on the 
very Word of God Himself. Still the fact is clear. 



INTRODUCTION". 



31 



This large association of Christians, whose shibboleth is 
" The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible," 
follows, after all, "human precepts and human teach- 
ing ;" and every minister of that body who refuses to 
bow down before the fallible and uncertain definitions of 
this authority must either close his lips as to his own 
convictions when they are in conflict with it — or resign 
his position and his salary. 

This is precisely the point I want to emphasize in this 
Introduction, and which I hope to bring out more fully 
in the subsequent chapters. A Revelation that is con- 
fined to a book, and which therefore does not explain 
itself, is no Revelation at all, as far as its practical effects 
on the mind of soimd-thinking believers are concerned. 
If there exists not an infallible guide, divinely commis- 
sioned, and guided by the spirit of truth, to explain it to 
us, we are in the same position as the Ethiopian who was 
converted to the faith by the teaching of the Deacon 
Philip. This man was asked by the Deacon if he could 
understand what he was reading in the Old Testament : 
and he replied, — " How can I, unless some one show me ?" 
(Acts viii. 31.) The Deacon then, acting on the com- 
mission given him by the Church to teach the meaning 
of the written word, explained the prophetic words of 
Isaias. The happy convert was in this way, through the 
ministry of Philip, brought into communication with 
the Word of God, and believed with Divine Faith, and 
was baptized and made a member of the one fold. 

It is useless for those who resist the authority which 
our Divine Lord appointed to teach us " all things," and 
who, notwithstanding the dread consequence of being 
excluded from a share in the Divine promises, refuse " to 
hear the Church," to contend that they are individually 



32 



INTRODUCTION. 



guided in their interpretation of Scripture by a special 
inspiration. Arguments upon arguments .and books 
upon books have been piled up, since the great revolu- 
tion against Church authority, to establish this point. 
Time was when, in spite of glaring facts, this was piously 
believed by many. But the exuberant language of pious 
emotion is powerless in its conflict with the matter-of- 
fact spirit of the present age. "Whatever the faults of this 
age may be in its contempt for God's Revelation, it rea- 
sonably and rightly insists that things shall be called by 
their real names, and that whatever has the appearance 
of a sham shall be rigidly and inexorably tested. A 
short answer is fatal to this pious assumption of individ- 
ual guidance of the spirit for the correct understanding 
of the written word. Even if certain isolated texts 
could be adduced to prove that there was ground for this 
belief, they are deprived of all force by the positive com- 
mand to hear and obey the teachers who received a 
divine mission to preach the Gospel to every creature ; 
and to transmit this mission of teaching all things that 
Christ revealed " to faithful men fit to teach others also" 
(2 Tim. ii. 2) to the consummation of the world. 

And if this is not enough to scatter the pretensions of 
individual guidance to the winds, there is another short 
and easily intelligible argument which utterly annihilates 
them. Contra factum non licet argumentwi. It is an 
axiom in sound reasoning, that no man can argue against 
a fact. And one of the most patent facts in the history 
of the Christian world is that the divisions of Christians, 
who rely on individual inspiration, are the great scandal 
of the Christian name. Faith is one and indivisible, and 
the spirit of truth cannot by any possibility be the source 
of this Babel of confusion and contradiction. 



INTRODUCTION. 



33 



From what I have so briefly stated, a fair idea can be 
formed of the scope of this book. It is meant to prove 
that true Faith in God's word is impossible, unless we 
have a living guide to explain its meaning with infallible 
certainty. 

Without such a guide, the written words of the Bible, 
though they cover the inspired teaching of the God of all 
truth, cannot give Life everlasting. " The letter killeth." 
They who will not hear the speaking guide appointed to 
interpret, aud expound, and preach the Divine message, 
and persist in their obstinacy, have every reason to fear 
the fate of " the unlearned and the unstable who wrest the 
sacred Scriptures to their own perdition" (2 Pet. iii. 16). 

I believe that any intelligent Christian, who is not 
hopelessly blinded by prejudice, can understand without 
difficulty the argument as I have put it. 

This argument, viewed in itself and a priori, is, I 
maintain, unanswerable and unassailable. If the Word 
of God has to reach us by the teaching of a guide who is 
not infallible, it is not the Word of God at all. There 
can be no certainty whatever about it. It is a mere 
human notion, working out the doctrine which it supposes 
is contained in the letter of the Bible. 

When this written word is supposed to express some 
truth beyond the reach of human intelligence, and there 
can be no certain assurance on this point, then the pre- 
sumption should naturally be that it has another meaning 
which possibly may commend itself to our judgment. 
This manifestly humanizes, if I may so express it, all that 
is Divine in the Record : and they who reject the promised 
infallible assistance of the Holy Spirit ever existing in 
the Church can rest their quasi-faith only on the weak 
and perishable support of human speculation. 



34 



INTRODUCTION. 



I know of course that there is scarcely a limit to what 
has been said on the argument in its application. It has 
been pointed out in books innumerable, that the Catholic 
Church, posing as an infallible guide, has actually erred and 
contradicted herself, and done all sorts of wicked things that 
positively render her unfit to teach us the meaning of the 
written word of God ; that Councils even have erred ; nay, 
more : that nearly the whole body of believers, the taught 
as well as the teachers, have been, for ages even, hopeless- 
ly sunk in the most abominable errors. Such things, I 
admit, have been said, and urged with remarkable power 
of language and semblance of probability by those whose 
only raison d'etre is this supposed wickedness and scan- 
dalous error. All I would answer, either here or in the 
course of the book, on a point so much controverted is 
simply this: These assertions have been fully met and 
satisfactorily answered, till one is weary of the repeated 
and overwhelming mass of evidence heaped together 
on the Catholic side. They are expressly contrary to 
the plain promises of the Founder of Christianity, 
that the Church established by Him as " the pillar and 
ground of truth" should be always, even to the end of 
the world, guided by the Holy Ghost, and His own abid- 
ing presence in the office of teaching that Faith which He 
has declared to be necessary for salvation (Mark xvi. 16). 

To enter ever so briefly into this part of the argument 
would only serve the same purpose that these cleverly 
written, millions I may say, of wordy treatises have 
effected since the Reformation, and are effecting at this 
present time of sore disquiet and unrest and almost hope- 
less inquiry after truth, — to advance the work of the 
powers of hell, and to throw dust in the eyes of earnest 
and sincere inquirers. 



INTRODUCTION. 



35 



The grand point is this. Without an infallible teacher 
there cannot be imagined such a thing as Divine, calm, 
and unwavering Faith. Without such a guide there can- 
not exist unbounded trust in the Divine message ; and 
the old Church, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic 
Church, is the only Church in Christendom that claims 
now persistently, as she did from the beginning, to be 
guided in her interpretation of the Deposit of the Faith — 
the written and unwritten Word of God — by the spirit of 
unchangeable and everlasting truth. There is no other 
Church or denomination in the world that dares to ad- 
vance for itself a claim of this kind. If any one, amongst 
the hundreds of sects that profess to teach the meaning 
of the written Word of Grod, claimed for itself the privi- 
lege of performing this office with unerring certainty, it 
would, by this assumption, convict itself of the terrible 
crime of rising up in rebellion against the teacher author- 
ized and directed at all times by Christ Himself. 

It is a fearful thing for those who are not Catholics, 
and who understand the force of the simple argument as 
I have put it, to ponder on these words of our Divine Lord, 
addressed to the first teachers of His law, and in them to 
their legitimate successors, in the work of teaching : " He 
that heareth you heareth Me ; and he that despiseth you 
despiseth Me ; and he that despiseth Me despiseth Him 
that sent me." (Luke x. 16.) 

If any non-Catholics will be moved by what I have 
written here, or by the contents of this book, to say to 
" the everlasting Church," — " What is truth ?" Heaven 
grant that they may ask the question with more earnest- 
ness and more real desire to receive an answer than did 
the unhappy Pilate, who by renouncing and condemning 
the great Teacher for the sake of the world filled up the 



36 



INTRODUCTION. 



measure of his iniquities. They who sin against truth 
and the holy spirit of truth, by refusing obstinately or 
with culpable indifference to hear the Yoice of the Church, 
which is the Divinely appointed channel of its communi- 
cation for all time, are, according to the Apostle, guilty 
of a crime like that of the unfortunate Roman Prsetor — 
because, by their rebellion or their sin against the Holy 
Ghost, "they crucify again to themselves the Son of 
God, and make a mockery of Him" (Heb. vi. 6). 



ALETHEIA. 



CHAPTER I. 



Necessity of Revelation. 



T is recorded that the last words of Goethe were 



-L " More light." The German Shakespeare, like his 
" many-sided " English compeer in the realm of fancy, 
had such exalted visions of the spiritual world that we 
may believe his expiring cry was addressed not, as many 
of his admirers would fondly imagine, to a senseless en- 
ergy, but to the personal God who is the Light of the 
World. One can easily understand this dying outburst 
of a great mind when he pictures to himself the worse 
than Cimmerian darkness with which the intellectual fer- 
ment of the latter part of the eighteenth century had ob- 
scured supernatural religion. No wonder this philoso- 
pher, who, as Madame de Stael says, represents in himself 
alone the whole literature of a nation distinguished 
amongst all others for the depth and sublimity of its 
metaphysical studies, should, as this world was fading 
from his view, have, by a last effort, expressed his ardent 
longing for even one ray to guide his soul through the 
mazes of an eternal existence.* The last desire of Goethe 

* The following extract from the " memoirs of Goethe, taken from 
a charming little book,—" Einsiedeln in the Dark Wood,"— will be iu- 




38 



NECESSITY OF REVELATION. 



has ever been the day-dream of really gifted minds who, 
by the circumstances of time, or association, or over-con- 
fidence in their natural abilities, have known nothing 
certain about their Divine Creator, or the end for which 
He called them into existence. They " shuddered at de- 
struction." The gloomy and overwhelming desolation 
involved in annihilation of personal existence after death 
sat upon their souls like a hideous nightmare, and evoked 
these involuntary sighs that betrayed their irresistible 
longing after the light of immortality. When I read, 
some years ago, in the life of Mary Somerville, that this 
wonderfully gifted woman, who, in her extreme old age, 
when she was confined to bed and no longer able to work, 
amused her waking hours with the solution of problems 
in the higher mathematics, had such a dread of the dark 
world beyond the grave that she, with all her strength of 
mind, could not bear for a moment to be left alone, I 
seemed to realize more than ever the priceless gift of cer- 
tain and undoubting Faith. Mary Somerville was a 
Christian, but not a Catholic. I have spoken with some 
who knew her intimately, and who bore testimony to her 

teresting to Catholic readers: " The antique dwelling of St. Meinrad " 
(where the church of Our Lady of the Hermits now stands at Einsie- 
deln) " appeared to me something extraordinary of which I had never 
seen the like. The sight of the little building, surrounded by great pillars 
and surmounted by arches, excited in me serious reflections. It is there 
that one single spark of holiness and the fear of God kindled a flame 
which is always burning, and which has never ceased to give light; 
a flame to which faithful souls make a pilgrimage, often attended with 
great difficulties, in order to kindle their little taper at its holy flame. 
It is such a circumstance as this which makes us understand that the 
human race stands in infinite need of the same light and the same 
heat which the first anchorite who inhabited this spot nourished and 
enjoyed in the depths of his soul, animated as it was by the most 
perfect faith." 



NECESSITY OF REVELATION. 



39 



noble and blameless character ; and yet she said to her 
constant attendant, " Hold my hand when you see me 
passing away, that I may not, while I am in this mortal 
body, feel the desolation of going forth alone into the aw- 
ful darkness." What would she have given then for that 
light of Faith, which a well-trained and powerful intellect 
can find only in the certain knowledge of what God has 
taught ! ISTo mere glimmerings and fitful flashes of sickly 
flame, kept alive by emotional sentiment, can satisfy those 
who have learned betimes to mature and develop the 
powers of reason. If they could be brought, not by 
imagination, but by the plain and positive means estab- 
lished by our Divine Saviour to help our weak endeavors 
after truth, into the presence of God, then would they be- 
lieve without doubt or hesitation, and go forth out of 
this world with joy and gladness into life eternal. 

It is so well known that the illustrious thinkers of old 
pagan times, though by the exercise of their natural 
abilities they had risen far above the follies and puerili- 
ties of idolatry, needed a Divine and supernatural light to 
guide them to a certain knowledge of one Supreme Being, 
that it would be useless to dwell here on their vagaries 
and inconsistencies, and their hopeless efforts to satisfy 
either themselves or those who looked up to them for 
instruction on this all-important subject. They were 
wise in their own conceit even when they ardently 
wished for light, and so missed the only way — the path 
of humble prayer — that would have led them to the 
knowledge of truth. It is almost incredible into what 
unwholesome depths they wandered, and into what shame- 
ful and repulsive vices they fell, while they eagerly pur- 
sued the ignesfatui which pride conjured up before them. 
The glimpse which St. Paul gives us of their degradation 



40 



NECESSITY OF REVELATION. 



in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Bomans, is quite 
sufficient to set before the mind of any one but a blind 
worshipper of humanity, the wretched perversity of fallen 
man when left to his own unaided powers, and to the 
temptations from within and without as often as, wrapt 
in the self-conceit of his intellectual gifts, he turns away 
from the Author of these gifts, and shuts his eyes to the 
evidence of almighty power and wisdom manifested in 
the visible universe. 

Without heeding these proofs of the necessity of Eeve- 
lation derived from the consideration of past times, we 
can learn this lesson from a glance at what is passing be- 
fore the eyes of the present generation. 

There are few great thinkers deserving the name of 
philosophers in the busy frivolous world of to-day. 
Physical science and its wonders form the ne plus ultra 
of the savants of the declining years of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. This study seems to them to constitute " the be-all 
and the end-all " of existence ; and if some of the leaders of 
modern thought attempt to theorize on the discoveries 
and inventions which strike the minds of the crowd with 
amazement, it is soon apparent that they are lost in a con- 
fusion of absurdities and glaring blunders. Whatever 
tends to prolong healthy animal life, and to avert disease 
is the creme de la creme of social science. Next comes 
the study of the arts that delight the eye and ravish the 
ear, and foster the concupiscence of the flesh, and ease, 
and comfort, and bodily enjoyment for a few short fleet- 
ing years. Music, painting, poetry, the drama seem to 
have lost the spirit which animated them in the ages of 
Faith, and which fed the soul, elevated above the grovel- 
ling things of earth, with visions, and sounds, and pure 
and happy thoughts of Heaven. The multitude, whose 



NECESSITY OF KEVELATION. 



41 



tastes and mental capabilities are of an inferior order, set 
their hearts on the acquisition of wealth. And these tastes 
and these pursuits constitute the higher life of culture, 
that seems the object of the aspirations of the genius and 
talent which scorn the simplicity and docility and hu- 
mility of Catholic morality. What can be more evident 
to one who contemplates the aims and objects and pur- 
suits of these gay triflers, than that a light from above is 
absolutely necessary to overpower, by its splendor, these 
glow-worm lamps which at best only amuse the idle 
fancy of the thoughtless, or suggest to the serious the 
shadows that hang round the silent and hopeless tomb ? 
" Silly moths !" must the Christian philosopher exclaim, 
" how easily are you lured to destruction by these evanes- 
cent charms that glitter in the dim phosphorescent lustre 
of a life of voluptuous pleasure, and how quickly do you 
sicken and die and perish everlastingly!" One is re- 
minded by this sad spectacle of the words which the 
poet attributes to the Peri : 

" ' Poor race of men! ' said the pitying spirit, 
' Dearly ye pay for your primal fall ; 
Some flowrets of Eden ye still inherit, 
But the trail of the serpent is over them all.' " 

Physical science and the study of nature are charming 
no doubt, and one might call them and the pursuits 
that foster and develop refined tastes, and " wake the 
soul by gentle strokes of art, and raise the genius and 
amend the heart " — flowrets of Heaven. But when these 
pretty flowrets poison and deaden the supernatural sense 
of Faith, and render it incapable of relishing these higher 
and purer enjoyments which are the most precious heri- 
tage of believers in a better life, they are fraught with the 
blighting curse of a death that knows no hope. 



42 



NECESSITY OF REVELATION. 



No one will I think for a moment accuse me of at- 
tempting to disparage scientific pursuits that tend to 
ameliorate " the ills all flesh is heir to." If the spirit 
and intention of noble students like Pasteur and others, 
who devote their lives to the grand object of averting 
disease, were only purified and exalted bj the lessons of 
Revealed Religion ; if men of this stamp saw in the 
suffeTing neighbor the image of Christ who wept tears 
of blood over the miseries of humanity, they would be 
walking in the very footsteps of Him who passed along 
during His stay on earth " doing good." If the all but 
inspired children of poesy and song, and those who re- 
veal on canvas or in marble their wondrous visions of 
the beautiful, would only rise to the perception of that 
beauty which is ever " fresh and ever young," and 
endeavor to elevate the thoughts and feelings of their 
admirers to some ideal far beyond the charms of volup- 
tuous sense, they might thus accomplish the office of 
angels, and become " messengers of God " to less favored 
mortals. Ry their works, conceived and carried out in 
this spirit they would, with a power often greater than 
that of the preacher, enkindle love and reverence for the 
All-Holy, and gather round them worshippers after God's 
own heart. Rut when Faith is wanting, all their splen- 
did gifts seem, if not actually perverted to the service of 
the eternal enemy of God, at best only to soothe or re- 
move a passing pain or evil that disturbs our comfort, or 
to awaken sensations that help us to forget for a moment 
or two the sad realities of this weary world. 

Rut what shall I say of the learned thinkers of our 
day, of those who profess to be the prophets and the 
guides of the present generation? When we look to the 
outcome of their philosophy, I think there can be no 



NECESSITY OF REVELATION. 



43 



more striking proof of the absolute necessity of Rev- 
elation than is afforded by their aimless, fruitless, and 
silly theories. If the philosophers of Greece and Rome, 
the wise men of antiquity who are and ever will be the 
admiration of men capable of appreciating profound 
thought, wandered away so egregiously from the truth 
which even a Christian child may learn from the Cate- 
chism, what shall be said of the unreasoning and un- 
reflecting fancies of modern genius ? I fear the flashes 
of a bright and exuberant imagination and the bold and 
reckless guesses of the clever men of our time are often 
mistaken for real wisdom. Many of the most gifted of 
these, wrapt up in their own conceit, and closing their 
eyes to the proofs of a first intelligent cause and a per- 
sonal God, assure us for our comfort that we belong to 
the monkey species, or that our ancestors must have 
sprung from " slugs and snails or puppy-dogs' tails." 

I was amused lately by reading, in a review of the In- 
troduction to " Catholic Christianity," that I had made a 
great mistake in attributing the growing infidelity to the 
want of serious thought. I was assured dogmatically by 
the learned writer, that this age was, on the contrary, re- 
markable for the deep attention paid by our illustrious 
writers and lecturers to the great problems of existence. 
It seems to me, watching carefully the drift of all this 
fine writing and learned talking, that one might learn 
more real wisdom from the sound reflections and prac- 
tical piety of a good Christian however humble in posi- 
tion and destitute of even one atom of scientific lore, 
than from the concentrated splendor of a whole galaxy of 
these stars forever wandering in the regions of unbound- 
ed speculation. I really think that even a poor ignorant 
old woman who had learned to say her beads devoutly, 



44 



NECESSITY OP REVELATION. 



meditating, as she mechanically numbered them, on the 
striking scenes in the life of our Divine Lord, would be 
quite competent to pass a sound judgment on the results 
of this so-called philosophy. If I asked her what she 
thought of learned men who made it appear that we all 
grew originally out of limpids or cockles or periwinkles, 
and that we were not created at ail, but grew up like 
mushrooms, and that there was no God who took care 
of us and would one day call us to a strict account for our 
thoughts, words, and actions, — if I did not quite take her 
breath away by the bare enunciation of this folly, she 
would clasp her hands in horror at such blasphemy, bow 
down to the very ground in reparation for the insult 
offered to the majesty of God, and perhaps exclaim, 
" Great Father in heaven, forgive these foolish children, 
for they know not what they say." 

I sometimes picture to myself a St. Thomas Aquinas 
or a St. Augustine present at a congress of our cultured 
scientists, and fancy what these giants of intellect would 
think of nineteenth-century wisdom. The lives of these 
saints were spent in gathering together every grain of 
knowledge to be found in the writings of the learned 
pagans. They carefully sifted out the smallest atoms of 
useful information, the fruit of past experience. They 
purified these precious things in the laver supplied by 
the sacred Scriptures — adorned and polished them with 
the teaching of the saints and Fathers, set them in the 
decisions of Councils — and then presented them with be- 
coming reverence and humility as their offering to the 
Church of God. They had patiently acquired, in the 
school of the cross, the lesson of real humility; and, 
consequently, if the unerring eye of the Church dis- 
covered flaws and imperfections in these treasures, won 



NECESSITY OF REVELATION. 



45 



by them with infinite labor, they submitted at once to 
its infallible judgment. There is no trace to be found 
in the writings of real men like these of the contentious 
moroseness and savage ill-humor and sharp incisive bitter- 
ness which mark the excited self-love of little minds. 
" Roma locuta est, res finita est." The Church inspired 
and directed by the Holy Ghost has decided, when God 
speaks man must be silent. 

Perhaps it is wrong for me to imagine that saints 
could be amused at even the puerilities of conceit ; but I 
could not help seeing in my mind's eye, the pitying 
smile which would involuntarily diffuse itself over the 
venerable features of these great Doctors of the divine 
law, as they listened to a lecture on spontaneous gene- 
ration, or the germination of the protoplasm, or the 
mechanism of the soul, or the fortuitous evolution of 
order and beauty from the action of an unconscious, 
blind, and material energy. Even people of ordinary 
shrewdness who have never studied an elementary 
treatise on theology are tickled into " unextinguishable 
laughter," as, in amusing themselves with the antics of 
an ugly baboon, they are told that the wise men of these 
latter times have demonstrated to their own satisfaction, 
that this hideous-looking and malicious brute was their 
own blood-relation, and gravely argued that ancestors 
more repulsive still were intimately connected by ties of 
consanguinity with the whole human family. 

Had the laughter-loving observer read some of the ad- 
vanced books of the period, and taken up the notions 
about " the struggle for existence" and " the survival of 
the fittest," he might be tempted to express his wonder 
that the first evolved human being had not finished off 
altogether a race which would, as long as it existed, 



46 



NECESSITY OF REVELATION. 



recall unpleasant and humiliating memories of the 
past. 

Some very amusing things have certainly been written 
on this interesting subject. For example, the simple 
means by which we may trace back in the ordinary ges- 
tures and movements of the features of human beings of 
all nations, the old habits of hair-covered and monstrously 
savage-looking cousins, is most taking and suggestive. I 
was once, many years ago, very near getting myself into 
a serious scrape by allowing myself to be seriously inter- 
ested in this captivating theory. An old friend, who 
could say rather sharp things when he was provoked, had 
a striking habit of uncovering his right eye-tooth, when 
he was about to cut one to the bone with a more than or- 
dinarily sharp sarcasm or reproach. I was the unhappy 
victim on one occasion, but such was my admiration for the 
theory, thus strikingly brought out in a moment, that, re- 
gardless of the coming lash or the probable consequences 
of my temerity, I exclaimed, " Bless me, you do remind 
me so of what Professor Darwin says !" Though the in- 
voluntary exclamation and the genuineness of the sur- 
prised look turned aside for the time the intended inflic- 
tion, I fear the wrath was rather intensified in its ferocity, 
when asked for an explanation and, afraid to say anything 
about a baboon, I mentioned the habit of the wild boar 
preparing for attack and the baring of the eye-tooth in an 
angry man — as a sign of near propinquity. 

I do not mention this merely for the fun of the thing, 
though it does tickle my fancy as I look back to that oc- 
casion ever memorable in my experience, but because it 
helps to illustrate how readily young people of a vivacious 
temperament are captivated and won to a theory by some- 
thing strikingly original in its conception, or by some 



NECESSITY OF REVELATION. 



47 



fact which has come under their own observation and is 
identified with it. 

I remember a young friend of more than common 
ability and thirst for knowledge of the sort so popular 
nowadays, telling me one day, with a look of conscious 
triumph lighting up his expressive features, that he had 
discovered in himself the remarkable power of moving 
forward at will the upper outward rim of one ear. Al- 
though the movement was barely perceptible, I could 
not, of course, under the circumstances forbear congratu- 
lating him on his close connection with the horse and the 
mule " who have no understanding," or some other animal 
particularly remarkable for the length of its ears, for this 
movement, and for its proverbial want of even animal 
sense. 

The close observation of the habits of animals in con- 
nection with wide-spread and almost universal ways 
which men, savage as well as civilized, exhibit almost in- 
stinctively — of, for example, twitching the face, or open- 
ing the eyes and mouth, shrugging the shoulders, under 
the influence of certain emotions — may be very interest- 
ing. It may, too, be very seductive, opening as it seems 
to do an easy and short way especially to ambitious 
youngsters of attaining celebrity as disciples of the great 
leaders of Progress. But one can hardly call this rub- 
bishy nonsense by the venerable name of Philosophy. 
Patient and kind and gentle, as all truly great men are, 
particularly those who labor to form their character on 
the model of the Saviour's, I am afraid a St. Thomas 
Aquinas or a St. Augustine would rather stare incredu- 
lously, and express himself strongly if this sort of bab- 
bling folly were introduced to his notice as the prol- 
egomena of a new system for explaining the connection 



48 



NECESSITY OF EEVELATION. 



of mind and matter, or the identity of reason and animal 
instinct. The relations between soul and body, and how 
the purely spiritual substance acts through brain and 
nerve power in the material body are, even apart from 
religion, sacred and venerable, when we consider the la- 
bors of so many illustrious scholars and profound think- 
ers to expound them. They should be respected and let 
alone at any rate by smart young men whose only quali- 
fication for the study of these very difficult subjects is 
the picking up in the pages of a magazine or a newspaper 
and retaining in the memory some pearl of apparent wis- 
dom, culled from the writings of a Darwin, or a Huxley, 
or a Stephens, or a Clifford, and thrown before the undis- 
cerning public by an editor badly in want of a paragraph 
to complete his columns, or to fill up a fixed number of 
pages. 

I do not venture to enter into the arcana of the Phi- 
losophy of the day. The vestibule is so fiercely guarded 
by grim dragons with bristling and horrid names never 
heard of in former generations, that one who has his time 
well occupied with serious work does not much care to 
try and effect an entry. Then when, after some difficulty 
and loss of time in furbishing up old roots, and applying 
them to the monsters and carefully securing them, one 
finds that they are merely scarecrows and well known by 
other and less pretentious names, the impression that the 
whole of this new philosophy is a make-believe and a 
sham is almost too strong to allow one to examine it by 
close study and prolonged investigation. 

I believe that nine tenths of those who read those arti- 
cles which are supposed to indicate the mental progress 
of the leaders of modern thought, think about them 
much as I do. If they do not chance to have been trained 



NECESSITY OF REVELATION. 



49 



in the meaning of these new terms so formidable-looking 
in their capital letters, they are either disgusted with this 
affectation of superior knowledge, so out of place in a 
paper meant for the general public, or so outraged when, 
after considerable loss of time, they find out the true 
meaning under a well-known name, that they quickly 
turn their attention to something else that is more reada- 
ble and interesting. 

If the outcome of all this stilted talk be only some of 
the nonsensical vagaries I have mentioned, I believe no 
sensible man will honor with the venerable name of Phi- 
losophy " this perilous stuff," however disguised it may be 
with high-sounding and sesquipedalian diction. 

It is a pity there is not some clever writer gifted with 
the genius of Moliere to write something like the " Pre- 
cieuses Ridicules" about the formidable essays which so 
often encumber the pages of the "monthlies" and the 
" quarterlies." After the ponderous magazines have been 
in labor for weary months upon months, and a "ricU cu- 
ius mus" like x in the nth power, is the offspring, one 
regrets that the beauty of the style has fascinated him. 
The public, if their religious interests are really cared for 
by the editors, would be benefited much more by popular 
expositions on the marvels of creation, and the evidences 
of design, and the adaptations of things to certain ends so 
visible throughout the animal and vegetable world and 
the whole universe. An occasional essay upon the folly 
of making "much ado about nothing" would be much 
more to the general taste and interest than most ingenious 
arguments to prove that He who has made the organs of 
hearing and of sight and of speech is destitute of intel- 
ligence. 

The labors of the old pagan philosophers in their 



50 



NECESSITY OF REVELATION. 



search after truth and light, before society was leavened 
by the preaching of the Gospel, is most interesting. In 
their writings we discover real power of mind, compre- 
hensive grasp of the state of the question, marvellous 
conclusions on premises barely discernible to the eye of 
natural reason. Even admitting that Plato and other 
great thinkers of antiquity derived some knowledge from 
the sacred books of the Hebrews, the results of their pro- 
found thought fill us with admiration of their wisdom. 

And if, notwithstanding these mental powers of the 
highest order, and souls superior to frivolous vanity and 
the ordinary temptations included under "the pride of 
life," they miserably failed in the attainment of such 
truth as would satisfy their own longings or command 
the reverent assent of the crowds who hung upon their 
lips, how miserable must be the failure of our leaders of 
thought, who, unable to stamp out in their minds the 
sublime morality and the heavenly wisdom of the Gos- 
pel, attempt to wrap up the elements of this teaching in 
forced enigmas that trifle with sound sense and fail even 
to amuse and entertain the intelligence of the public ! 

"When these men, distinguished as they are by con- 
siderable ability in scientific studies, and patient and 
keen observers of nature in every form, go beyond the 
limits within which their knowledge and judgment are 
most valuable to mankind in all that regards the present 
life, and enter upon the vast realm of theology for which 
they have received no training, and rashly speculate on 
the dark future, they are bound to fall as surely as 
Icarus when the wings hastily glued to his shoulders 
dropped in the excessive sunshine. These men affect 
the cry of Goethe, and promise their disciples " exfumo 
dare lucem" — to evolve light out of their obscure and 



NECESSITY OF KEVELATION. 



51 



contradictory yet elaborate and ingenious theories. They 
have not only failed, but are becoming objects of pity to 
those who once trusted in their splendid abilities.- 

I say therefore that in the failure of those who in spite 
of their obstinate determination to exclude Gospel light 
are yet pervaded by it, we can have no stronger proof 
of the utter powerlessness of men to attain to a perfect 
or adequate knowledge of God and the end of their own 
being, unless they "become as little children" in all that 
regards these mysterious truths. The book of nature is 
open before them. God has unfolded it to their view. 
We cannot think of His infinite goodness and condescen- 
sion, as it has been revealed to us through Jesus Christ, 
without feeling that He, from His bright throne above, 
must look with admiring fondness on those of His chil- 
dren as have most distinguished themselves in these pur- 
suits. He must have smiled " as when the morning stars 
praised Him together, and all the sons of God made a 
joyful melody" (Job xxxviii. 7), at the development of 
the faculties which He had bestowed upon them, through 
their own unaided industry and perseverance. What a 
pity that pride should rob them of further supernatural 
grace, and prevent them from accepting with gratitude 
the glad tidings communicated freely to men of good 
will, through the teaching of His infallible Church ! 

How this most consoling truth has been preserved in 
the great plan of our Divine Lord, and how it is com- 
municated — not only to the learned, but to the simple 
and uneducated poor and little ones of the fold — will 
form the subject of the next chapter. I mean to show 
briefly and plainly that it never entered into the mind 
of the Founder of Christianity to perpetuate His law and 
revealed will in the pages of a written or printed book. 



52 



NECESSITY OF REVELATION. 



This great and enduring mercy was to be communicated 
to all by the vwa voce teaching and preaching of a body 
of men who, not for their own sakes or their own merits, 
but for the good of mankind in general, were to be 
guided forever in this all-important office by the watch- 
ful guidance of the Spirit of Truth. 



THE TRUE SENSE OE REVELATION. 



53 



CHAPTEE II. 

The True Sense of Revelation Cannot be Deter- 
mined by the Bible Alone. 

IT is out of the question in a small work like this, 
meant for the general public, to enter into proofs of 
the fact of a Divine Kevelation. Those who believe in 
the existence of a personal God — and I am convinced 
that every reasonable being, whatever he may say to the 
contrary, feels this belief in his inmost consciousness — 
must, if he will think seriously on the subject, be irre- 
sistibly led to the conclusion that this Supreme Being 
has announced His will to man. The scientists who 
devote their lives to the study of nature are so im- 
pressed with the manifestations of design, even in the 
most minute forms of animal and vegetable life that, 
while they proclaim that all things are evolved from a 
blind force or an unconscious energy, they pay an in- 
voluntary homage to this supreme Artificer who has " made 
all things well." One cannot read the writings of those 
close and patient observers of organic forms without 
meeting constantly expressions which prove beyond 
doubt, that the evidence of plan and arrangement of 
parts to certain ends, overwhelm their affected scepticism. 
When our Divine Lord would point out to His followers 
the loving care of the Great Father of all mankind for 
the chief work of His creative power, He directed their 
attention to the birds of the air and the wild flowers of 
the field as the most striking proofs of this doctrine. 



54 THE TRUE SENSE OF REVELATION CANNOT 



An unconscious Creator is, as the late Lord Beaconsfield 
remarks, " the extreme of absurdity." 

Once we bow down before this irresistible conviction, 
and feel, in opposition to the suggestions of pride and 
self-independence, that our Heavenly Father cares for 
the least things He has brought into existence, we must 
believe that He could not allow the only beings in the 
world capable of recognizing His power and wisdom, to 
wander away from Him in hopeless search after the 
origin of their presence in this world. If, through some 
cause or other, supposing the history of the primeval 
fall is disputed or denied, the greatest intellects found it 
impossible to attain to a satisfactory knowledge of their 
first beginning and last end, should not a God of infinite 
goodness be bound by the law of His nature to tell them ? 

A Eevelation from Him that would illumine the dark- 
ness which spread like a dense pall over all mankind 
was surely to be expected ; and that this expectation was 
fulfilled in the knowledge communicated by Him to our 
first parents, and afterwards in the voice of inspired 
Patriarchs and Prophets and the deliverer of the Hebrew 
nation, and finally by Jesus Christ, is proved by a mass 
of testimony of the most learned, wise, and good of all 
ages, which by its irresistible weight overpowers all op- 
position. 

Clever infidels have assigned certain causes for the 
rise and establishment of Christianity, independent of 
Eevelation; but, as Cardinal Newman well remarks in 
treating of Gibbon's "five causes," it is the wonderful 
combination of these causes, and whatever others may 
be assigned for the fact of the universal belief in the 
divine mission and character of Christ, that gives the 
overwhelming evidence in favor of Christian Faith. 



BE DETERMINED BY THE BIBLE ALONE. 55 

I will not dwell any longer upon this point. The 
present uncertain state of religious opinion outside the 
Catholic Church, the wild and fanciful speculations of 
the leaders of modern free-thought, and the still more 
fanciful theories, founded on mere assumptions and 
isolated physical facts, and the constant jumping from 
particular observations to general conclusions, prove be- 
yond reasonable doubt that if it rested with the cleverest 
men of the day to solve by their own unaided reason 
the problems of existence, and to construct a system of 
religion, they would be absolutely powerless to offer to 
mankind anything in the shape of fixed truth which 
might form the basis of tranquil Faith and firm Hope 
and supernatural Charity. A light from above is an 
absolute necessity to set before us a religion that will 
sustain us under the many tribulations of this passing 
life, and enable us to meet death with manly courage. 

The question then arises, where are we to find a Faith 
like this ? Is it contained in the Bible ? 

I willingly admit that this Holy Book, since it was pre- 
sented to mankind by the Infallible Church as the inspired 
word of God, has been the stay and comfort of innumer- 
able earnest souls. Millions and hundreds of millions 
have gleaned in its pages peace of mind such as the world 
cannot give ; and assured by its consoling promises count- 
less multitudes who have thus been enabled to rise supe- 
rior to the temptations which continually assail poor 
human nature. I know no more charming spectacle out- 
side Catholic Faith, than the pious feeling of the earnest 
Christian who, seeing the vanity of all worldly things, 
clings to his Bible with fond affection as the source of his 
purest happiness here below, drinks in with ever-increas- 
ing ardor its heavenly maxims, and finds in its salutary 



56 THE TRUE SENSE OF REVELATION CANNOT 



lessons a solace for every trial. If anything religious can 
be compared with that simple, docile, and childlike trust 
in the merciful dispensation of the Sacraments, it is surely 
the almost superstitious reverence with which earnest 
Christians, who are not Catholics, open the sacred volume, 
hoping to find in the first page that presents itself to their 
view a ready answer to their wants, and believing that 
the Holy Spirit of Grod addresses them individually in its 
silent words. I reverence the man or woman who makes 
it the rule of daily life to read a chapter in the Bible ; 
pondering as he or she reverently reads its salutary lessons, 
and endeavoring to the best of his or her ability to bring out 
to every member of the family circle its solemn meaning. 

Why we Catholics should be accused of depriving our- 
selves of this wholesome gratification, or why it should 
be constantly stated by those who differ from us that the 
Church is opposed to the pious reading of the Bible, is only 
to be accounted for by the force of traditional prejudices. 

In times of religious ferment, when private judgment 
warred hotly with the divine authority established by 
our Divine Lord to teach us His holy law, and men were 
wresting the mysterious words of Scripture " to their own 
destruction," the Church forbade the indiscriminate read- 
ing of the sacred Scriptures. " The unlearned and the 
unstable" were warned of the grave consequences, involv- 
ing " destruction," if they took it upon themselves to 
interpret the sacred text in favor of dangerous error, and 
were advised to learn the articles of the one Faith, " which 
is necessary for salvation," rather from the legitimately 
appointed guide than from their own heated prejudices 
and excited feelings. 

But men of good will who were well grounded in their 
religion, were always encouraged by the Church to seek 



BE DETERMINED BY THE BIBLE ALONE. 57 

in the Holy Book healthy food and nourishment for their 
languishing souls. To read a chapter in the Bible every 
day was part of the rule of every religious order, and of 
every college, where ecclesiastics were preparing for the 
sacred ministry. A certain portion, a page or two, 
formed part of the reading in the refectory ; and supe- 
riors watched carefully that, besides this reading in com- 
mon, each member of the community attended daily to 
this practice in private. I remember well that in college, 
the visiting Dean always looked at the Bible, which, by 
the rules of the house, should be found on the desk of 
every student, and noted in his report-book, as an indica- 
tion of want of piety, if the leaves of the sacred volume 
were uncut or unmarked by a , register. We were sup- 
posed to be sufficiently advanced by previous training not 
to dwell on certain events or passages that might be 
fraught with danger to a prurient and uncontrolled im- 
agination. The Superior often pointed out the number 
of chapters in the Bible and the length of time it would 
take, by private reading of a chapter each day, before 
study of ordinary business, to enable the student to go 
through the whole book from Genesis to the end, and 
the great comfort it would be in after-years to all who 
were faithful in the discharge of this pious duty. 

Some Protestants still believe it to be an incontrovert- 
ible fact that the Bible is a sealed book for Papists of all 
classes. The truth is, bishops and priests teach their 
people, who can afford it, to have in their houses the best 
edition of the Bible approved by the Church which their 
means will allow them to purchase, to treat the Holy 
Book with the greatest reverence, and to make a practice 
of reading frequently the life of Christ and His blessed 
words as recorded by the Evangelists. 



58 THE TRUE SENSE OF REVELATION CANNOT 

It is objected, that the Eoman Catholic clergy are always 
opposed to the reading of the Bible in schools, and that 
this is a proof that they regard the reading of the Scrip- 
tures as un-Catholic and Protestant. A sufficient answer 
to this objection is that the Catholic Church condemns 
the irreverent use of the Holy Book. I need say nothing 
about unauthorized versions, and the interpretations so 
flippantly given by ignorant ScrijDture-readers and school- 
masters who have never learned the Catechism. They who 
know how the copies of the sacred Scriptures are knocked 
about in school-rooms, and handled more carelessly than 
a worthless novel or a sensational story-book, can appre- 
ciate this answer. 

When I learned, many years ago, with what honor 
well-instructed and consistent Hebrews treated the Old 
Testament, it seemed to me that many of our Bible-read- 
ers in public schools might have learned from them a 
useful lesson. Of course there are Jews and Jews ; but 
this I know for a fact, that a Jew who has been well 
brought up by believing parents, and even moderately 
instructed in the Hebrew language and the teaching of 
the Rabbis, will always open the sacred volume with a 
reverence that might excite the amazement of an ordinary 
Christian. A Catholic gentleman told me that, desiring 
on one occasion to have the interpretation of a well-edu- 
cated Hebrew on a disputed passage in Isaias, he went to 
his house and asked him to explain the passage. This 
Jew, once well known in G-rahamstown as a wealthy and 
respectable merchant, foremost in every work of common 
charity and benevolence, first put on his dress-coat and 
then a pair of spotless white gloves, before he turned over 
the pages of the sacred volume. Many Christians who 
are always belauding the Bible may probably smile at 



BE DETERMINED BY THE BIBLE ALONE. 59 

these marks of respect, and attribute them to Jewish no- 
tions of external ceremonial. If they took the pains to 
consider what this reverent handling of the Holy Book 
meant, they might then understand better the action of 
the Catholic Church in guarding the sacred Scriptures 
from the rough usage of thoughtless boys and girls, who, 
from familiarity with it as a school-book, come in time to 
regard it as the Chinaman or savage Indian who turns it 
to uses never dreamt of by the pious folk who seem to 
rest their salvation on the ardent zeal with which they 
help Bible societies to shower it on these benighted pa- 
gans. 

I repeat then that I admire those who read the Bible 
reverently, whether they are Protestants or Catholics. 
But I am decidedly opposed to any course that naturally 
tends to bring the Holy Book into that familiarity which 
breeds contempt. I regard the scattering of Bibles over 
the world, for this reason, as a huge mistake. I believe 
that no reasonable man, be he ever so wedded to the 
popular notion of disseminating Bibles by the million, 
will calculate the growth of reverent piety by the ratio of 
distribution. If it be a fact, what is asserted by men who 
ought to know, that cheap Bibles have been used as 
wadding for guns, and for all sorts of domestic purposes, 
by people on whom it has been forced, then I think that 
even zealous Bible Christians should have their ardor in 
the work of diffusing copies somewhat cooled. Even 
they might be brought to understand that the practice of 
distributing them indiscriminately by colporteurs and 
ignorant agents, interested chiefly in being able to hand 
in large lists to their employers, could be carried too far. 
It is the conviction of many experienced men, Protestant 
as well as Catholic, that this furor or mania for scattering 



60 THE TRUE SENSE OF REVELATION CANNOT 

Bibles broadcast over the world is one of the chief causes 
for the growing irreverence and disbelief in the Divine 
message that is spreading in all directions. Where the 
Holy Book is judiciously offered to those who really 
desire to receive a copy, and who are likely to read it 
with proper dispositions, much good may be done in this 
way. 

I perfectly agree with what Cardinal Newman says in 
his " Grammar of Assent" on this subject : " It has at- 
tuned the minds of well-disposed people to religious 
thoughts; it has given them a high moral standard, it 
has served them in associating religion with compositions 
which, even humanly considered, are among the most 
sublime and beautiful ever written ; especially, it has im- 
pressed upon them the series of Divine providences in 
behalf of man from his creation to his end, and above all, 
the words, deeds, and sacred sufferings of Him in whom 
all the providences of God centre." " What Scripture," 
his Eminence continues, " especially illustrates, from its 
first page to its last, is God's providence; and that is 
nearly the only doctrine held with a real assent by the 
mass of religious Englishmen. Hence the Bible is so 
great a solace and refuge to them in trouble. I repeat, I 
am not speaking of particular schools and parties in Eng 
land, whether of the High Church or the Low, but of the 
mass of piously-minded and well- living people in all ranks 
of the community." (" Grammar of Assent," p. 53.) 

But all this is very different from saying that the 
Bible, left to each individual judgment, is the proper 
Kule of Faith. It is all very well for piously-disposed 
people to find, or imagine they find, in its pages a con- 
firmation of the religious opinions or views in which they 
have been brought up. 'No one will think of maintaining 



BE DETERMINED BY THE BIBLE ALONE. 61 

that the Bible alone, apart from creeds, formularies, and 
articles, and constitutions, will be found a clear and dis- 
tinct and unerring code of dogmas or maxims which may 
safely be regarded as the Faith " without which it is im- 
possible to please God." 

If we could suppose the case of two men, whose 
minds, as far as distinct religions tenets are concerned, 
might be regarded as a tabula rasa, perfectly clear of 
any preconceived doctrines ; and that these, equally 
matched in ability and ordinary learning, were set apart 
to draw up from the Bible a certain formulary of belief, 
it is quite certain that important differences of opinion 
would manifest themselves on nearly every article of 
Faith. One might as well predict that the letters of the 
alphabet shaken out of a bag would, by any amount of 
shaking, range themselves into a definite order. If by 
any stretch of imagination or intense belief in super- 
natural individual guidance the two men I have sup- 
posed were to be found agreeing on what are called 
fundamental or essential doctrines, this outcome of their 
united wisdom would, strange and almost miraculous as 
it might appear, scarcely be regarded as a Revelation 
from Heaven. And if on comparing notes one yielded 
to the convictions of the other, and their formula of re- 
ligion was thus rendered alike in every particular, it 
would only stand for what it was worth, according to the 
known abilities and learning of the two inquirers. 

But suppose that not two but fifty, or a hundred, or a 
thousand well-trained linguists and experts were to put 
their heads together, and sink their differences of opinion, 
in bringing out a complete set of articles, what security 
could this concentration and amalgamation of learned 
opinions afford to one really in earnest about fulfilling 



62 THE TRUE SENSE OF REVELATION CANNOT 

the conditions of salvation? None whatever. A multi- 
tude of opinions is only a probability at best ; and who 
will reasonably trust his hopes of eternal life to a mere 
probability as long as there is a possibility of positive and 
certain assurance ? 

Can we for a moment imagine, that Divine Wisdom 
would afford only a mere chance of fulfilling the condi- 
tions which have been formally laid down for the attain- 
ment of His reward exceeding great ? 

Suppose there was question only of the honors or posi- 
tion attached to an examination for the learned profes- 
sions, who would think of employing the " coaching" of 
mere amateurs without experience, when the services of 
well-tried and successful tutors were at hand ? 

The whole scheme of deriving fixed and certain Faith 
from the written word, and its interpretation by un- 
authorized and fallible teachers, is a mere farce — "a 
mockery, a delusion, and a snare." The Apostle says 
that "without Faith it is impossible to please God" 
(Heb. ix. 6). Faith is certain knowledge of the true 
meaning of the Divine message, and whatever guidance 
or teaching cannot afford this certain knowledge, though 
it were ostensibly as perfect in all respects as the tribunal 
lately established in England for the revision of the 
sacred text, or the committee now sitting in the Colony 
for the correction of the Kaffir version, it is deficient in 
one essential particular, absolutely necessary to afford a 
basis for anything like Faith. 

The real ground of Faith is the veracity of God ; and 
if there is no certainty as to what God has actually said, 
there can be no Faith. 

It is needless to dwell further on an absolute truism. 
Any intelligent person can at once realize to himself the 



BE DETERMINED BY THE BIBLE ALONE. 63 



cogency of the argument. Select from all nations the 
most gifted scholars, eliminate from your council every 
element of weakness, subject the chosen few to every 
test that might convince the world of their fitness for the 
task, as far as human learning is concerned, and let them 
decide unanimously on the meaning of controverted pas- 
sages, as long as there is no guarantee for the inerrancy 
of their united judgment, the result is only an opinion 
after all. 

They may be wrong, and consequently those who trust 
implicitly in their decision may expose their salvation to 
manifest peril. If Christ has declared that a firm Faith 
in all things which He commanded His Apostles to 
teach is a necessary condition to secure the happiness 
He has merited for us, and our learned assessors agree, 
after much altercation, that the Catholic Church is wrong 
in its interpretation of an important passage, who will 
venture to say that, beyond all doubt, they, and not the 
Catholic Church, have infallible truth on their side ? 

Suppose this passage relates to the Real Presence of 
the Body of the Lord in the Blessed Eucharist, or the 
right meaning of the words, " This is my Body," on 
which depends our hopes of a glorious resurrection 
(John vi. 55), how can any earnest Christian be satisfied 
with a mere opinion ? He puts the matter to this learned 
assembly, and he says, " Are you absolutely certain that 
you have laid down the only true meaning of these mys- 
terious words, and that the whole Catholic Church, 
which differs from you, is absolutely and unmistakably 
wrong?" What answer can they give, on their prin- 
ciples, but this : " No, we are not certain ; no one can be 
certain? But we have every reason to believe that, as 
far as we can judge, we are right." 



64 THE TRUE SENSE OF REVELATION CANNOT 



The notion that our Divine Lord would have left the 
poor and simple and unlearned to such guidance, in a mat- 
ter of infinite importance to their eternal welfare, is mani- 
festly inconceivable. Could a way so doubtful and un- 
certain out of difficulties, where a mistake should be at- 
tended with consequences far beyond temporal loss or 
death itself, be the simple way which, according to the 
Prophet, should be so plain and straight that not even 
fools could mistake it % (Isaias xxxv. 8.) What would 
Redemption be worth, if its chief fruit, " a glorious Resur- 
rection," were to be left to mere chance or a question of 
probabilities % How, by any possibility, could the igno- 
rant, to whom He chiefly preached while He was on earth, 
and the poor, to whom He rejoiced that the Gospel had 
been announced (Luke vii. 22), and the great majority of 
mankind who resemble them, — how could these hope to 
attain the certain knowledge of what God required as a 
condition of salvation, by weighing and balancing claims 
of contending tribunals, all alike destitute of infallible 
certainty % How can such as these decide on the proba- 
bilities, who can know nothing, or next to nothing, of the 
qualifications of such tribunals? Yerily, in such an 
hypothesis, the Saviour of the world was only laying a 
snare for the unwary and the simple-minded, and availing 
Himself, as some unbelievers have insinuated, of an 
opportunity of depriving trusting souls of the inherit- 
ance which He professed to purchase for them by His 
passion and death. 

But I will suppose, for a moment, that Christ said to 
Himself, " The ignorant and the unlearned will follow the 
decision of their superiors. Those who possess the 
necessary lights for attaining the meaning of My arrange- 
ments and My law will decide, in cases of difficulty, and 



BE DETERMINED BY THE BIBLE ALONE. 65 

then the way will be clear and straight to those not so 
highly favored." The bare idea of such a scheme is 
fraught with blasphemous imputations against His in- 
finite wisdom. Let any one picture to himself this state 
of things, and he will see in a moment how absurd and 
impracticable it would be. The learned in all professions 
must spend their time in solving, as best they may, theo- 
logical difficulties; scientists, doctors in law and medi- 
cine, artists, men of genius, as well as theologians, must 
study and see their way out of difficulties involved in the 
interpretation of the written word. They must neglect 
their ordinary work, and apply themselves to the acqui- 
sition of the original languages of the text, hunt up old 
records, compare and collate old manuscripts, diligently 
examine the writings of the learned men of past genera- 
tions, hear what their brethren have to say on each 
point, and at last, when they have, in this long and tedi- 
ous investigation, neglected the duties of their state, give 
the poor and simple their candid opinion on every doubt- 
ful point, and thus enable them to have eternal life. The 
supposition is too extravagant to have been adopted by 
Infinite Wisdom. 

How plain and simple, on the other hand, does the 
plan of the Catholic Church appear, in contrast with 
these impracticable and silly theories which are only the 
natural and logical consequences of heretical teaching! 
The Catholic Church declares now, as she ever did, " I 
am the infallible teacher which the Son of God has ap- 
pointed to solve and explain any difficulties that may 
arise in the interpretation of the Divine message. I am 
the inheritor of the promises of supernatural assistance. 
I am inspired by the same Holy Spirit that inspired 
the writers of the Bible. I have always explained the 



66 THE TRUE SENSE OF REVELATION CANNOT 



hidden things and ' the things hard to be understood,' 
and I am to explain it to the consummation of the 
world. If you desire to know beyond all doubt the con- 
ditions of salvation, hear my voice. I will speak at once, 
and with no uncertain sound. I will be to you the voice 
of God Himself. Christ our Lord, who gave me this 
commission, has said, 6 He that heareth you heareth 
Me.' This and this only is the true "Word of God. 
Hear my word, if you would not share the fate of the 
unbelieving publican and that of the unfortunate pagan."" 
It is a remarkable fact that the Catholic Church alone 
professes to teach the meaning of the Divine Word with 
infallible certainty. There is no Christian denomination 
in the world that pretends to have received this power 
but the everlasting Church. In fact they dare not. 
Once it is admitted that an infallible teacher is neces- 
sary to enable mankind to know with infallible certainty 
what God has revealed, it must be admitted, at the same 
time, that the Church established by Christ and His 
Apostles possessed this privilege. And if she once pos- 
sessed it, and the promise of our Divine Lord to send 
the spirit of truth to teach her implied so much, then 
she must have possessed it always ; for this spirit was, 
according to the same promise, to abide with her forever. 
Forthwith, the raison d'etre, the source of the very ex- 
istence of any Church separated from her vanishes 
altogether. 

Every one knows that the only reason on which every 
Protestant community justifies its position of antagonism 
to the old Church is, that this Church established by our 
Lord shamefully erred in her teaching ; that not only 
were her members steeped in iniquity, but that she 
taught authoritatively hideous idolatry and blasphemous 



BE DETERMINED BY THE BIBLE ALONE. 67 



and absurd fables. But if she was once infallible, this 
total deviation from true teaching is a manifest denial of 
first principles. 

Hence I maintain that no Church but the One, Holy, 
Catholic, and Apostolical Church dares to assume the 
privilege of infallibility. 

Since it is evident that there can be no certain knowl- 
edge of the meaning of the Divine Eevelation unless the 
teaching body knows with certainty what God has taught, 
and since it is also a fact beyond dispute that those who 
oppose and protest against the Divine authority of the 
Catholic Church by this act cut themselves off from the 
possibility of knowing the true meaning of the Divine 
message, Faith such as St. Paul describes this virtue — 
Faith firm and undoubting, "the evidence of things that 
appear not," Faith founded on the veracity of God — is 
beyond the reach of all who have separated themselves 
from the " one fold " or approve of that separation. 

Cardinal Newman, with his usual clearness, puts the 
matter so plainly that, as far as the argument is consid- 
ered in itself, and apart from the confusion and bewil- 
dering difficulties with which human ingenuity, in 
distorting the facts of history, has surrounded it, it is ab- 
solutely unanswerable. "It is very evident," says the 
Cardinal, " that no other religious body has a right to 
demand such an exercise of faith in them" (a faith that 
excludes the possibility of doubt), " and a right to forbid 
you further inquiry, but the Catholic Church ; and for 
this simple reason, that no other body even claims to be 
infallible, let alone the proof of such a claim. Here is 
the defect at first starting, which disqualifies them, one 
and all, from ever competing with the Church of God. 
The sects about us, so far from demanding your faith, 



68 THE TRUE SENSE OF REVELATION CANNOT 

actually call on yon to inqnire and to doubt freely about 
their own merits ; they protest that they are bnt volun- 
tary associations, and would be sorry to be taken for any- 
thing else. Then as to the established religion, grant 
that there are those in it who forbid inquiry into its claims ; 
yet still dare they maintain that it is infallible? If 
they do not (and no one does), how can they forbid inquiry 
about it, or claim for it the absolute faith of any of its 
members % Faith under these circumstances is not really 
faith, but obstinacy." (" Discourses to Mixed Congrega- 
tions," p. 230.) 

Now, the most that can be said against this authorita- 
tive teaching which excludes doubt or even inquiry, is 
that it makes men slaves and holds them in cruel bond- 
age. But let the matter be looked at fairly in the face ; 
let it be understood that it is God Himself, the Infinite 
Truth, that speaks by the mouth of His appointed teach- 
ers. "It is not you that speak, but the spirit of your 
Father that speaketh in you" (Matt. x. 20). And what 
then is the meaning of these clap-trap words — " slavery" 
and " bondage" ? Is it slavery to hear and obey the voice of 
God ? Must a man claim to himself the right of doubt- 
ing God's own word, and treating his Maker as he would 
scorn to treat a trusted friend ? What would we think 
of the man who professed an ardent, trusting love for us, 
and at the same time claimed to himself the right of mis- 
trusting and watching our every word and action, and in- 
sisting ever on his right, whenever it so pleased him, to 
cast us off and despise us ? There are few if any who 
would care for such friendship as this. It is insulting 
and odious in its very claim ; and when applied to the 
God of all truth it is simple blasphemy. 

How then can any one who believes in the Holy Catho- 



BE DETERMINE!) BY THE BIBLE ALONE. 69 

lie Church, reserve his right of one day doubting her au- 
thority and questioning her teaching ? 

How beautifully touching are the words of the Cardinal, 
as he seems to smile gently at the proud world's outcry 
against simple, docile, and trusting faith, and seems to hear 
the rude names of " bigot," "unreasoning slave," "fool 
that allows his judgment to be fettered in the galling bonds 
of blind obedience" ! " Fetters indeed ! Yes, 6 the cords of 
Adam,' the fetters of love, these are what bind him to 
the Holy Church ; he is, with the Apostle, the slave of 
Christ, the Church's Lord, united never to part, as he 
trusts, while life lasts, to her sacraments, to her sacrifices, 
to her saints, to the Blessed Mary her advocate, to Jesus, 
to God." (Ibid. p. 216.) 

Yes, but it will be said : Are not reasonable men to in- 
quire, and does not the Apostle commend those who, like 
the Bereans, " search the Scriptures" ? 

Of course every man who is capable of making any- 
thing like a reasonable inquiry, is bound to make it, and 
would be neglecting a most important duty if he did not. 
He should carefully consider "the credentials of the 
Church," satisfy himself that she is the legitimately ap- 
pointed guide, and the Church of the promises, and that 
she alone, amongst all other Christian societies, possesses 
the distinguishing marks of Unity, Sanctity, Catholicity, 
and Apostolicity. Every one ought to push this inquiry 
carefully, according to the amount of his ability and his 
knowledge. But however great his talents, and extensive 
his learning, and polished his critical acumen, he ought 
not to make a fool of himself, by wasting precious time 
in hunting up every mare's-nest that ingenious persons 
and teachers of error may indicate to him. Rational men 
have their duties to attend to, and should mind their busi- 



70 THE TRUE SENSE OF REVELATION CANNOT 



ness. It requires more than smartness to constitute a 
theologian : and Christ never meant that they who, from 
their calling and state in life, had responsible work before 
them, should neglect this work for the profound study of 
theology. 

The inquiry as regards the simple and the unlearned, 
whose all-absorbing desire is to know the blessed 
will of God, may be summed up in these few ques- 
tions and the reasoning that is intimately connected 
with them : " Did Christ leave us an unerring guide 
to teach us the way to heaven, and to instruct us in 
the knowledge of all these truths that are necessary for 
salvation ? Surely He ought to have done so, knowing 
how we sholud be perplexed and troubled with the con- 
flicting claims of our varying creeds. And if He ought 
to have given us this guide, most assuredly, considering 
His loving care for the poor and unenlightened, he 
has done so. Where then is the old Church that He 
established ? If she was the right Church once, she must 
be the right Church to the end of the world. All the 
contending sects, even those who affect the name of 
Catholic, though every one called them Protestants in our 
fathers' time, say that the Roman Catholic is the oldest. 
In her bosom alone can we find rest for our weary souls. 
Christ certainly never meant that we were to spend our 
lives in hunting for proofs that He broke His word, and 
allowed her, in this century or that, or under such a Pope, 
or under certain doubtful and perplexing circumstances, 
to fall away from the faithful discharge of the important 
office once confided to her. We must be safe if we trust 
with confidence in the promise of our Lord and Saviour. 
He said to the first teachers of His religion : ' Go ye 
therefore and teach all nations ; and, behold, I am with 



BE DETERMINED BY THE BIBLE ALONE. 71 



you all days, even to the consummation of the world " 
(Matt, xxvdii. 19, 20) ; and 6 1 will ask the Father, and 
He shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide 
with you for ever — the spirit of truth — who shall abide 
with you and be in you ' (John xiv. 16, IT). The Apos- 
tles died over seventeen hundred years ago. Christ must 
have meant therefore by these promises of perpetual 
guidance to be with their successors in the office of 
teaching : and as there is no other Church in the whole 
world but the Catholic Church that claims to be united 
with the Church of the Apostles, she must be the right 
teacher, and the only one to whose guidance we can safely 
trust our eternal welfare." 

Here is a course of reasoning so plain and brief and 
convincing, that it may well be called, in the words of the 
Prophet, " a way in which not even fools can err." 

As to that text, " Search the Scriptures," when I see it 
blazoned forth on the cover of every penny tract, as well 
as on the title-page of every unwholesome-looking tome 
of polemical time-worn materials, I feel amazed at the 
crass ignorance or brazen impudence of men who will go 
on repeating, parrot-like, this form of words, when it has 
been shown to a demonstration over and over again that 
they have no more connection with the argument than if 
they were quoted by the arch-enemy of mankind to up- 
heave the everlasting work of Christ. Pious and simple- 
minded Protestants understand from their teachers, that 
these words of the Apostle had reference to their Bible 
in the form and with the same contents as they have 
them now, while it is a fact, that they could not possibly 
have reference to the New Testament, which was not 
written at the time, and that the Bereans were simply 
commended for doing what I am stating it is the duty of 



72 THE TRUE SENSE OF REVELATION CANNOT 

all reasonable men to do — namely, to examine and to sat- 
isfy themselves about the credentials of the teachers to 
whom they are about to entrust their dearest interests. 
This sort of text-quoting, and applying the " Word of 
God " ever and always to the written word, even when 
the context shows that the expression has reference to 
preaching, reminds me of the smart answer of a Catholic 
missioner who was badgered out of patience by this dog- 
matic and peculiar style of argument founded on a few 
detached passages. " "We read," he said to his polemical 
antagonist, " that Judas hanged himself ; and we read 
also, ' Go thou and do likewise.'" 

As I said in the Introduction, I mean in this book to 
confine myself to the argument of an infallible Church 
viewed in itself or a priori. The reading world is weary 
with all that has been written about the wickedness and 
errors of Popes, and the wrong decisions of Councils, and 
the interpolation and corruption of their decrees. They 
who believe that the whole Church had for ages been 
sunk in idolatry and scandalous error will believe any- 
thing, no matter how opposed to the Divine promises ; 
because if this were a fact, then it would necessarily fol- 
low that Christ was an impostor, and had broken His 
solemn word : on which all Christendom firmly relied, 
without question or doubt, for fifteen hundred years. 

It would be useless therefore to enter, however briefly, 
upon the much-disputed ground of history. Let those 
who fiercely maintain that Christ deceived the believing 
world, and attempt to prove it by any amount of critical 
essays, amuse themselves in turning over the millions of 
pages that have been written on this part of the argument. 
I contend for principle and on grounds that any one may 
fully understand ; and I consider that I have proved to a 



BE DETERMINED BY THE BIBLE ALONE. 73 

demonstration, that without a living, speaking, and infal- 
lible guide, we cannot know with certainty what God 
would have us believe ; and consequently, that Divine 
Faith is an impossibility in any communion or sect of 
Christians that cannot prove, or dare not claim, the privi- 
lege of teaching with infallible certainty the true meaning 
of the revealed Word of God. 

In the next chapter I mean to show that private judg- 
ment, or the exercise of free thought in determining the 
sense of the Divine message, is just as delusive as the 
scheme of deriving real Faith from the text of the Bible, 
or the written, silent, and often mysterious Word of 
God. 



74 



PRIVATE JUDGMENT: 



CHAPTEE III. 

Private Judgment : What it really Means. 

""TXT HAT'S in a name?" the poet asks, as if a mere 
* » name were nothing of real value in general estima- 
tion. But in this unthinking age, a name, or even the shad- 
ow of a popular name, is the chief thing that wins the regard 
and admiration of the multitude. What will not the ex- 
citable common herd of mankind be moved to accomplish 
when the cry of " Liberty" is raised by artful demagogues ! 
Liberty may often mean no more than those unbridled 
excesses that wrung from the ill-fated Madame Eoland 
the well-known exclamation so constantly echoed by the 
thoughtful and the wise. Alas ! what strange and almost 
incomprehensible prejudices are kindled into blazing fury 
by this name so dear to every generous and manly heart ! 
It seems to me that what is called the right of private 
judgment is eminently one of those high-sounding and 
emotion-exciting names which are supposed to signify so 
much, and which, like the much-abused cry of Liberty, 
too frequently means the very opposite of what it is gen- 
erally supposed to express. 

Private judgment might, as Cardinal Newman puts it, 
be better called " the private right of judgment ;" or, in 
other words, the right of a certain class, and no one's else. 
I know of no greater tyranny than that of those who, 
while they howl almost frantically against the authority 
of the Infallible Church, would crush by every means in 



WHAT IT REALLY MEANS. 



75 



their power any doubt or questioning of their own fallible 
judgments in matters of religious belief. 

If they professed to hold truth with anything like cer- 
tainty, there might be some excuse for this intolerance ; 
because truth is necessarily intolerant of error. But 
when they are bound on their principles to admit that 
their faith is merely human, and therefore of its very 
nature liable to be mistaken and unfounded, it is amazing 
how furiously they rave against the Catholic doctrine 
which differs from their own opinions. 

I am not in the least exaggerating this abuse of what 
these men are supposed to reverence as their inalienable 
birthright and the precious charter of their conscientious 
opinions. 

Every one knows what a storm is raised when some 
Protestant of rank or position joins the Catholic Church. 
One would have thought that England was threat- 
ened with invasion when the Marquis of Ripon was 
appointed Governor of India. No one doubted for a 
moment of his high statesmanship and capacity for this 
important office ; bufc it was said, had he not forfeited all 
right to any government appointment when he dared to 
avow himself a Papist ? The low growl of savage discon- 
tent with whicli the news was received by the Protestant 
public, that the Grand Master of Freemasonry had become 
a member of the Roman Catholic Church found some sort 
of satisfaction in the fierce denunciations which, from Ex- 
eter Hall to the most humble conventicle, reverberated 
through the land. The ministry, who were congratulating 
themselves on removing their most noble colleague to a 
post worthy of his talents, far away from the scene of his 
unpardonable sin against fanatic bigotry, must have shud- 
dered at the manifestations of wide-spread indignation 



76 



PRIVATE JUDGMENT: 



which greeted the appointment. And yet after all was 
not the most noble Marquis exercising only his right of 
private judgment ? 

I dare say some of the most noisy in their denuncia- 
tions of his change in religion would have been either in- 
different altogether or simply amused, had he chosen to 
join the Plymouth brethren, or the Birmingham Philadel- 
phians, or even the Mormons or the Anythingarians. But 
his offence in returning to the Church of his ancestors 
was too rank, " it stunk in the nostrils of Heaven ;" and 
the gentle saints, not because their own pride was hurt, 
but because they knew beyond doubt that Heaven was 
angry, felt themselves impelled to share in the celestial 
indignation. 

I wonder if people, sensible in other respects, are ever 
ashamed of themselves for having given way to such 
manifest inconsistency. I dare say they very rarely are, 
for unreasoning hate which appears to be engendered by 
the pure love of God is seldom followed by remorse. 

The chief priests and rulers probably had no compunc- 
tious visitings, or a desire to make amends for their im- 
pious deicide, even when they were convinced that the 
enemy of their law and of the temple had actually risen 
from the dead. 

Now what is this private judgment which, while it 
claims such remarkable privileges for itself, is so despotic 
in refusing even ordinary consideration and forbearance 
to the religious belief of others ? 

I cannot give a better or more comprehensive defini- 
tion of it than that of the learned scholar already quoted. 
According to Cardinal Newman, "Private judgment 
commonly means passive impression." 

A man who exercises what he calls his private judg- 



WHAT IT REALLY MEANS. 



77 



ment, takes up some peculiar view, not the result of his 
own thought-out and well-reasoned convictions, but some 
theory which, in the course of his reading or experience, 
he has found cut and dry in a sermon, or a magazine, or 
a newspaper, or which he has picked up it may be in the 
nursery, or in school, and he makes it his property. It 
falls in with some fancy or notion of his own, and he 
likes it, and is guided in his reading of the sacred Scrip- 
tures and religious books by this prominent idea. What- 
ever seems to contradict his favorite theory is flung aside 
as absurd or ridiculous. He has made up his mind, and 
that is enough for him. He does not wish to be troubled 
with the opinion of others, and is disposed to be irritated 
if they are pressed upon him. 

I well remember a case which appears to me an excel- 
lent illustration of the point. A very much respected 
Protestant friend, as kind and good a soul as ever I met, 
used to give me his religious views in a very condensed 
form. He did not care for Anglican disputes about the 
High Church or the Low Church, the narrow or the 
broad, though he was an active member of an Anglican 
communion, and ready at all times to perform the duties 
required of him by his fellow-churchmen or the rector or 
bishop in possession. " My religion," he used to say, "is 
condensed in these words : ' Fear God, honor the king, 
and do good to all men.' " He was what would be called 
in the world " a God-fearing man." He had no strong 
political bias, felt a glow of loyalty whenever he heard 
the national anthem, and was always ready to help the 
neighbor in the fullest sense of the good Samaritan. If 
certain inconsistencies in his creed were pointed out to 
him, he seemed ruffled for the moment, but his gentle ex- 
citement passed away like a summer cloud. " What have 



78 private judgment: 

I to do," he used to say, " with these quarrels and dis- 
sensions and sects ? They do not concern me ; and if 
people will make fools of themselves, that is their own 
affair." 

I ventured to remark on one occasion, that it was pretty 
clear from Eevelation, that we are bound to honor God 
by Faith, and that a certain clearly defined Faith was laid 
down in the Scriptures as a necessary condition for salva- 
tion. I saw that this was pressing the argument too 
strongly, and only seemed to make him uncomfortable, 
so I did not press it farther. However, I quite satisfied 
myself that my amiable friend was as dogmatic in his 
own way as the most orthodox churchman, and that if 
brought to a point which conflicted with his comfortable 
theory, would be likely to say unkind things of those who 
differed from him. It was many years ago, and I dare 
say he regarded me as a young man whose notions on re- 
ligious questions would, in course of time, be moulded 
into acquiescence with his views. If not, why then he 
would consider me as one of the fidgety and restless 
fools who differed from him. 

I mention this case as a fair example of one of the 
mildest forms in which I have seen private judgment 
manifest itself. Others would argue, and when floored in 
argument, storm and rave and say all manner of cutting 
things about Antichrist and " the abominations of Pop- 
ery." His extreme view was only pity for my inexperi- 
ence. I think the case is worth consideration. "Whether 
this worthy gentleman had heard this view expressed by 
some one or other whom he respected, or picked it up 
himself in the course of a ramble through the sacred 
Scriptures or the Prayer-book, I cannot say. But there 
he had taken his stand, and he was as firm and unyielding 



WHAT IT REALLY MEANS. 



79 



in his opinion as if it had been evolved by years of patient 
study of the Bible and the commentaries of the Fathers of 
the Primitive Church. He would not attempt to force 
any one to take up his standard of Faith, or say unkind 
things of those who differed from him ; but he decided 
the matter in his own mind, and was perfectly satisfied 
in his inmost thoughts, that they were giving themselves 
unnecessary trouble about things which, if they had only 
some share of his common-sense, might be settled in a 
moment. Peace to his ashes ! I can only hope that before 
he passed away calmly and serenely from the cares of life, 
he may, even at the last moment, have prayed that a 
merciful God would fill up whatever was wanting in his 
good dispositions. 

I have dwelt upon this case because it will help to bring 
out under the most favorable circumstances what I wish 
to say of the dogmatism and inflexibility of private judg- 
ment. 

At its very best it is narrow-minded and illiberal. It is 
a mere sentiment, illogical and unreasonable in its source, 
and filled up to the brim with self -laudation and conceit. 

One of the greatest of its mistakes, and that which at- 
taches me to the definition given of it above — " passive 
impression" — is that it is the real offspring of individual 
selection of one out of many established and fashionable 
ways of looking at religion, and that insensibly it be- 
comes subjective, and impresses and rules inexorably the 
thoughts and feelings of the person captivated by it. In- 
dividual reasoning and the exercise of free-thought have 
nothing whatever to do with it, unless we attribute to a 
mere capricious fancy what should only be the well- 
grounded conviction of an earnest and thoughtful mind. 

The truth is there is no such thing as private judg- 



80 



PEIVATE JUDGMENT: 



ment properly so called possible for the great majority of 
mankind. Who in fact is capable of so shaking off the 
impressions of early childhood and the fixed habits of 
early education and training, that he can imagine himself 
divested of prejudices in the formation of his religious 
convictions % As a child he has learned from parents the 
result of their conclusions about religion, just as they 
derived them from those by whom they were brought 
up. There may be and of course are modifications ac- 
cording to the fashions of the time. Ritualism and Con- 
gregationalism may have gradually assumed new forms, 
and these peculiarities in the use of certain hymn-books 
and more polished music, and certain attitudes during 
divine worship, may have tinged their outward ways of 
assisting at the service of their particular sects. But 
what they learned in early life about God, and the soul, 
and the future, remain so firmly fixed in the mind that it 
will require a superhuman effort aided by the grace of 
God, or a revolution stirred up by the powers of dark- 
ness, to upheave it. 

It seems almost incredible that sensible men could 
seriously imagine that they are free from bias in their re- 
ligious views, and perfectly free from prejudice when 
they go on practising the forms of worship, and preserv- 
ing, perhaps not quite regularly, but in the main, the 
habits of devotion to which they have been accustomed. 
If they are not over-particular in saying the daily prayers 
which they learned in early life from pious parents, they 
are certain to resume them whenever their religious 
emotions are excited by any of those circumstances 
which, from time to time, throw a cloud over present en- 
joyment and reveal the mysterious shadows of the shores 
of eternity. He might be regarded as one hopelessly lost 



WHAT IT EEALLY MEANS. 



81 



to early impressions who, attending the funeral service 
of a dear friend, would not, for a few moments at least, 
behind the hand or hat raised to his face, endeavor to 
commune with his Maker in the old way once so dear to 
him. The feeling is always there, unless it has been 
studiously crushed out of his soul by pernicious reading 
or the constant chatter of frivolous and unbelieving as- 
sociates. And this feeling is cherished as the only true 
religious sentiment which he thinks it worth while to 
recognize. Every form of religious worship that does 
not fall in with this sentiment or clashes with it, is at 
once rejected as nonsensical or absurd. 

Such I believe is the free-thought or the unbiassed 
private judgment of more than nine-tenths of non-Catho- 
lic Christians, a mere passive sentiment impressed by 
early training and confirmed by habit, and retained in all 
its vigor in spite of carelessness, unless, as I have said, it 
is stamped out of the soul by positive unbelief. 

No doubt people of this class consider themselves im- 
mensely liberal, when they so far control the outward 
manifestations of this sort of religion, as neither by 
word nor gesture to indicate their contempt for the re- 
ligious practices of others. They believe that they are 
perfectly free from prejudice, large-minded and liberal, 
while, if they only examined the nature of their private 
and individual consciousness, they would be forced to 
admit that they were blindly following the religious 
views of others, and passing severe and despotic censure 
on everything in religion which differed from that which 
had impressed itself on their particular fancy. 

The large-minded Dominican preacher Lacordaire 
proves conclusively, in his first Conference on Eeligion, 
that it would require conditions for the free exercise of 



82 



PEIVATE JUDGMENT : 



private judgment which are absolutely impossible, when 
the mind can reasonably be supposed to be in that con- 
dition which is essential to the real working of a totally 
unbiassed and untrammelled intellect. After pointing 
out the immense difficulties of completely silencing the 
voice of early teaching and first impressions, and the 
giant work of building up an independent philosophy, 
the education, the study, the power of mind, and the 
time and application necessary, he winds up the argu- 
ment by asking who, after all, is completely superior to 
national prejudices. Who, he says, could possibly believe 
for a moment, that his views about religion would be 
the same if he were born and brought up in the midst 
of Mohammedans and Buddhists, as if his life were cast 
from the beginning to the end in the midst of a Chris- 
tian nation 1 

The case is completely different when one prays for 
light and receives a supernatural grace. He is then led 
on, as it were by the hand of God, through the mazes of 
conflicting opinions to the oracle of truth ; and while he 
hears with humble docility the voice of the infallible 
Church, he sees by Faith the unmistakable path that 
leads to Heaven. He may, if it so pleases him, easily 
discover another way, bright and cheering and hopeful, 
as far as the present life is concerned, but the end of 
which is death. He may, aided by the spirit of pride, 
and teed on by the fascinations of the tempter, fling 
aside forever the traditions of Christian Faith. His 
choice once wilfully and deliberately made in this direc- 
tion, early associations will soon cease to trouble his 
peace of mind. There may be vain regrets, as he ven- 
tures at times to look forward on the cold, blank, gloomy, 
and hopeless future, and he may sigli over the ruins of 



WHAT IT REALLY MEANS. 



83 



once-cherished convictions ; but he has murdered the 
faint life of Faith within him, and with a shudder of re- 
morse he quickly turns away his eyes from the dark 
prospect, and endeavors in the dissipation of worldly 
dreams, to shut out the vision of the dread spectre. 

I remember once, many years ago, while travelling by 
night train from London on the Great Northwestern 
Eailway, having a friendly discussion with a very in- 
telligent gentleman on the Eternity of Punishment. We 
were alone in the compartment, and he started the sub- 
ject. I proposed that we should argue in the formal 
logical way observed in the schools, and, as he was quite 
familiar with the syllogistic form, he readily assented. 
After numerous distinctions and sub-distinctions of minor 
propositions, we reached at last the decisive point of the 
argument, when he goocl-humoredly confessed that he 
could not answer the proposition. " I am beaten," he said, 
" but not convinced. I believed once and was happy. 
But since I read that book" (naming it) " the Faith which I 
had inherited from a good mother seemed to die within me, 
and I feel it can never revive." " But why not pray for 
help ?" " Pray !" he said, in a tone of unmistakable an- 
guish, " I cannot pray ; there is a mocking spirit within 
me that laughs to scorn the bare notion of anything like 
prayer." 

The fact is manifesting itself more clearly every day 
to reflecting minds. There are only two ways before a 
reasonable man — the way of Revealed Truth — the way 
that God has marked out for us, distinctly shown by 
the Infallible Church ; and the way of unbelief, which is 
the broad way " that leads to destruction," by withdraw- 
ing those who choose to follow it from a personal God 
and " the joy exceeding great " to be found only in 



84 



PRIVATE JUDGMENT: 



Him. There is Revelation, not guessed at by private 
judgment, but determined by this everlasting Church. 
And, on the other hand, there is the Religion of Hu- 
manity. There is no via media. If men will not hear 
the Church, they must, whether they desire it or not, 
sooner or latter give up all pretensions to supernatural 
guidance, and accept, like the "Wesleyan Conference, 
human standards, fallible declarations as to the meaning of 
the Divine message, mere human formularies, which when 
pushed to their logical conclusions end in the senseless 
worship of man and the uncertain dicta of private judg- 
ment. 

This miserable phantom of private judgment affects a 
lofty tone, has ever on its lips the high-sounding words 
liberty of thought, and indejiendence of mind, and so 
forth. But it is a poor delusion ; it has no real exist- 
ence; it is at most an empty bauble, glistening with 
borrowed light, and it leads those who trust in its ever- 
changing and unsteady gleams into the most abject 
slavery that it is possible to conceive. "When we admit 
the teaching of an Infallible Church, when, having care- 
fully considered its credentials, and those marks of 
authority which no man of good will can mistake, we 
submit our reason to its guidance, it is not the voice of 
fallible man that guides us, but the voice of eternal 
truth, speaking to us by the organs which the God-Man 
has appointed to be the interpreter of His will to a world 
cursed by pride. 

There is no slavery here, unless it be slavery to obey the 
call of Him to whom we owe everything that we possess, our 
mental faculties and our very existence. By this plan of 
communicating to us what He has prescribed as absolute- 
ly necessary for our salvation — a plan perfectly in accord- 



WHAT IT REALLY MEANS. 



85 



ance with the whole economy of redemption — Christ 
" has made us free." He has given us that true liberty 
which, as Cardinal Manning so beautifully expresses it, 
"means redemption from sin, from falsehood, from 
human teachers who may err and therefore can mislead. 
It is redemption from all spiritual tyranny of man over 
man, and the liberation of the whole man, with all his 
faculties, his intellect, his heart, his will, his affections ; 
it is a redemption of the soul in all its actions towards 
God, in its obedience, in its faith, in its adoration, by the 
Divine authority of Jesus Christ, who has purchased us 
with His Precious Blood, and has folded us within a 
Unity where falsehood cannot enter, and under the Divine 
guidance of a teacher who can never err. Such is true 
liberty, and there is no other." (" Temporal Glory of 
the Sacred Heart," Cardinal Manning, p. 177.) 

Who are those who are ever reproaching Catholics 
with the slavery of Faith ? They are the men who by 
their own plain and admitted teaching seek most effect- 
ually and practically to destroy in those who look up to 
them for guidance the very essence of intellectual lib- 
erty. They are the men who say, " You shall cease to 
belong to our communion, you shall be expelled from it 
and excommunicated, if you dare to announce in press 
or pulpit, or in open speech, anything that differs from 
the teaching which we have set before you. Although we 
have no certain assurance to give you of the truth which 
we have determined for you, though it may be for all 
we know utterly false, still if an angel from Heaven were 
to announce to you any other gospel, than ours, let him 
be anathema." 

I wish honest men would seriously ask themselves, is 
there any exaggeration here ; am I not simply and in 
plain words declaring a well-known fact ? 



86 



PRIVATE JUDGMENT! 



On Catholic principles, the teaching Church is infalli- 
ble ; it is gnided and assisted in its permanent office by 
the spirit of truth, and therefore cannot err. 

In every other Church, even the most liberal, even 
that which will admit within its bosom the broadest in- 
terpretation of the sacred Scriptures, such as necessarily 
involves the denial of the Divinity of Christ and all mys- 
terious dogma, there is no security for the anxious soul. 
Every other Church than the One, Holy, Catholic and 
Apostolic Church declares openly, and is forced to 
declare, that all her teaching may be false. They not 
only proclaim that they are not safe guides, but endeavor 
to force the same character on the Catholic Church. 
Consequently they deprive their members of the chance 
of having real Faith — even when these members receive 
dogmas taught by the Catholic Church. 

Can any bondage be like to this ? It is the slavery of 
the noblest part of man, worse a thousand times than 
iron fetters and ropes that bind the body. Yet these 
men are never weary in assailing Catholics, because, in 
the simplicity of their Faith, they are not only content 
but happy beyond measure, to be bound to the God of all 
truth, by the bonds wherewith Christ our Lord has bound 
us to Himself, that He might thus secure us from the 
perils of hell and a miserable eternity. 

If those who are in the humiliating position of intel- 
lectual slavery, compelled to receive as truth what may 
be error, were satisfied with the vain attempt to drag 
down the old Church to their own level, one might re- 
press every other feeling but that of compassion. We 
might pity them because, unable to have security them- 
selves, they would foolishly envy us who believe that we 
are in a position that defies this tyranny. But when 



WHAT IT REALLY MEANS. 



87 



every opportunity is taken by these fallible guides to as- 
sail the venerable Spouse of Christ, to deride her claims, 
and to stigmatize her infallible interpretation of God's 
word by unfounded charges against her morality and ap- 
peals to angry passions, and no language is considered too 
strong to denounce what are called "her silly preten- 
sions," one is obliged, for the sake of the dutiful children 
of this mother, to vindicate her honor and character, and 
to state the truth fairly and plainly. 

It would be worse than silly to reply to vituperation 
by vituperation. This line of answer is suited only to 
the canaille of society. The boldest and the most vulgar 
and the loudest disputants may rule the roost of the fish- 
market. But in religious discussions hard names are as 
singularly out of place, as if an educated gentleman at- 
tempted by cock- crowing to drown the derisive crows of 
a lot of rude boys, set on to provoke his patience by this 
ridiculous uproar. 

I have always entertained a profound respect for relig- 
ious convictions founded on simple and confiding trust, 
and supported by humble prayer; but when pious be- 
lievers are taught " in season and out of season" that the 
surest and the shortest way to secure Heaven, is to esteem 
themselves above others, and to mount upwards on the 
imaginary crimes of the neighbor, it is often necessary to 
enlarge on the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. 
It then becomes a duty to point out to the victims of this 
delusion that there is a vast difference between Divine 
and human dogmas, and that they are carefully to distin- 
guish between the teaching of fallible men and those 
who according to the Divine promises " are taught of 
God." 

When, on one occasion, I heard a local preacher com- 



88 PRIVATE JUDGMENT ! 

pare " the credulity" of the Irish, who have clung to the 
one true Faith with a perseverance and a heroism that 
excites the admiration of the world, to the blind fanati- 
cism of the pagan Kaffirs, who at the word of a witch- 
doctor destroyed their cattle and their only means of 
subsistence, it required the exercise of much patience to 
hear in silence the vaporings of the pious booby. But 
when, carried away by the vehemence of his prejudices, 
he went on to represent my countrymen as deluded so 
far as to believe the " lies" of their faithful priesthood, 
I could not help feeling amused at the naivete with 
which he was telling his own story. Many who were 
present on that memorable occasion, when Grahamstown 
gathered together under the influence of that "touch of 
nature" which made us all feel that the perishing natives 
were members of the human family, understood well 
that stupid talk of this effervescent character was com- 
pletely out of place, and probably felt ashamed of it. 
Perhaps only a few amongst them knew as well as I, that 
real Faith is founded on the Word of God explained by 
an authorized and infallible teacher, while all the danger 
of " believing a lie" rests with those who mistake frothy 
declamation for sound doctrine, and put their trust in 
preachers who are bound to declare that with all their 
, unction, they are but fallible men and " blind leaders of 
the blind." 

I dare say, if this book falls into the hands of men of 
the stamp of the orator above described, that my ears will 
tingle under the influence of the hard things that will be 
said about me. All I can say on this matter is that I 
would be most happy to be scolded and derided and 
denounced, if the vehemence of the strong language only 
suggested to the hearers, even a suspicion that I must 



WHAT IT REALLY MEANS. 



89 



have said something very like the truth about the delusive 
character of private judgment. 

In the next chapter I mean to pursue this important 
subject farther, and to point out more definitely, by a few 
illustrations, into what vagaries and inconsistencies men 
are unwittingly led who prefer in their religious theories 
to be guided rather by the fallible teaching of self-com- 
missioned and erring men, than by the Divine authority 
of the Catholic Church. 



90 VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 



CHAPTEE IY. 
Vagaries of Private Judgment 

WHEN the gifted but unfortunate Chatterton was 
setting out for London to seek his fortune, and 
picturing to himself various plans for the attainment of 
his object, there was one which assumed a very distinct 
and practical shape, and which he hoped would stand 
between him and self-destruction. This was, in case all 
his literary efforts failed, to become a ranting preacher. 
" Credulity is," he wrote, " as potent a deity as ever, and 
a new sect may easily be devised." 

Any smart fellow with a facile imagination and what 
is commonly called "the gift of the gab" might, as the 
Yankees say, " strike ile" if he made up his mind to work 
on the credulity of the public. 

A school-fellow of mine in early days — a farmer's son, 
who cared far more for following the hunt, and bird- 
nesting and rabbit-shooting, than attempting to apply 
himself to the classics and the gradus ad Parnassum, 
used sometimes, in an outburst of savage impatience, to 
exclaim, "Well, if the worst comes to the worst, and I 
am doomed to cut short my present labors, I'll go to the 
far West, and turn black-cap preacher." 

He was clever and observant, and could not shut his 
eyes to the temptation set before him in the inordinate 
craving of the uneducated non- Catholic public after nov- 
elty and excitement in religion. 

I read the other day a most amusing book which has 



VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 



91 



had a great run in England as well as France, — " John 
Bull and his Island," — which, the Daily News says, "hits 
off its subject to the life ;" and found in the chapter, 
" The Religions of England," abundant proof of this ex- 
cessive credulity, which seems to invite with patronage 
and purse, the services of any unscrupulous litterateur 
who might be disposed to keep himself in order, and in 
proper long-tailed coat and white neck-tie, to solicit its 
favor. 

The author says that there exist in England 183 relig- 
ious sects, certified to the Registrar- General. This is not 
to be wondered at, when we consider how many, in that 
happy country of free thought and inquiry, pride them- 
selves on the right of private judgment and worshipping 
God after their own fashion. 

" Out of a population of 81,000,000 souls in the United 
Kingdom and the Colonies, 18,000,000 belong to the An- 
glican Church; 14,500,000 are Methodists; 13,500,000 
Catholics ; 10,250,000 Presbyterians ; 8,000,000 Baptists ; 
6,000,000 Congregationalists ; 1,000,000 Unitarians; and 
about 10,000,000 belong to different sects of less impor- 
tance." (p. 251.) 

He then gives a complete list of the 183 religious 
sects; and in subsequent chapters "hits off" the remark- 
able features of some of these sects which seem to afford 
his readers features of special interest. 

It will answer my purpose, in noting the vagaries of 
private judgment, to mark a few of these. It is not 
with any feeling of trifling over a grave subject that I do 
so. More in sorrow than in anger, much less with any 
feeling of scorn or contempt, do I take over a few proofs 
of the truly lamentable consequences, which fall heavily 
on the poor and ignorant, who will not have the Gospel 



92 



VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 



preached to them according to the wise plan ordained by 
our Divine Saviour. 

I see by this statement, taken from the books of the 
Registrar-General, that the sect is still in existence which 
believes in the Divine visitation of Joanna Southcotte, the 
prophetess of Exeter. She, as it is well known, founded, 
in the early part of the century, a religious sect named 
the Jumpers. She declared that the devil was every- 
where, and that Christians should jump upon him. 
"When the Jumpers assemble for worship, they say noth- 
ing, but jump to their hearts' content, and the higher they 
jump and the more heavily they come down on their in- 
visible foe, the greater are their hopes of salvation. 

How deep-seated must be this disease in the minds of 
the poor deluded followers of the Devonshire prophetess, 
which survived not only her own discovery of the silly 
dream that may have for a time fascinated her, but even 
to the present day, inspires many a well-meaning and 
pious old woman to look to her in the hope of a glorious 
resurrection ! 

There is another remarkable offspring of private judg- 
ment in the belief of the " Peculiar People." The fatal- 
ism of fanatic Arabs, who almost annihilated our trained 
troops, by reckless and daring charges, inspired by con- 
tempt of death, does not surpass the fatalism of the 
" Peculiar People." If they are brought to the verge of 
the grave by illness, they will not think of calling in a 
doctor. Their private judgment, founded on their own 
interpretation of Scripture, convinces them that to call 
in a medical man would be to insult G-od, and show that 
they had no confidence in His paternal care. " If it is 
the Lord's will that I should die, let His will be done. 
Nothing can save me ; if it is His will that I should re- 



VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 93 



cover, then He can save me without the help of any doc- 
tor." 

If small-pox or cholera attacks the " Peculiar People," 
our legislators may find, that certain extravagances of 
private inspiration must be repressed with a stern hand. 
A visitation of this kind might help to convince the 
boastful toleration of the present day, that in the ages of 
Faith, when people, instructed by the Catholic Church, 
valued "the one thing necessary" more than mammon, 
rulers sometimes found it necessary to stamp out, by stern 
measures, a moral pestilence that threatened, like the 
Manichsean plague, from which these evils sprung, to 
annihilate society. Quite a flood of sentiment has been 
poured out over the persecuted Albigenses, the martyrs, 
it is said, of free thought and private judgment. That 
flood, however, would ill represent the tide of grief which 
spread throughout Christendom, when from perversions 
of the sacred text, sprung up in southern Europe some of 
the most debasing habits of paganism in its worst and 
most degrading forms. 

Society of the present day, polished and refined to the 
very extreme of sestheticism, and indulgent to the ab- 
surdities of all beliefs, would raise a wail of horror, and 
cry aloud to Heaven for vengeance on the guilty, if it 
would learn from the detectives and medical men of our 
great cities, both of the New and Old World, something of 
the impious rites and practices which, like a horrid cancer, 
are poisoning the life-blood of those who have ceased to 
fear God and the effects of His wrath in the world to come. 

"We hear now a great deal about the Salvation Army 
and its Generals, its fortresses, its sieges, its battles, and 
its red-hot Gospel-shots, its reception of the Holy Spirit, 
etc. If these people were less blasphemous in their pub- 



94 VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 



lie announcements, and endeavored by other means to en- 
kindle and keep alight an enthusiasm against drink, one 
might look with an indulgent eye even on the capering 
and dancing and wild gesticulating of women in the pub- 
lic streets. But no thoughtful upholder of private judg- 
ment would, I believe, think of approving of the way in 
which the most sacred names are publicly profaned by 
the Salvationists. 

"When one reads at the end of stirring war-proclama- 
tions that "the Surgeon-General, Jesus Christ, will be 
present to attend to the sick and wounded," or " by order 
of King Jesus and Captain Cadman," or is informed by 
a huge placard that, " after spiking the enemies' cannon, 
the blood-and-fire soldiers will march in a certain direc- 
tion, there halt and form in hollow square, and amid fire 
and blazes and the playing of the Hallelujah gallop, re- 
ceive the Holy Ghost!" he cannot help shuddering at 
such excesses of profanity. 

The worst evil, in all these self -inspired movements for 
effecting good, is that there is no legitimate authority to 
control them. A spirit of fanaticism is aroused, that 
clamors loudly for independent and unrestrained action. 
It will not have its ardor cooled by wise direction. It is 
inspired, say its defenders, by the Holy Spirit of God, 
and why should man dare attempt to repress it ? 

When a certain amount of success has crowned efforts 
like these, and the movement swells and spreads, self- 
glorification takes the reins of ordinary prudence into 
its inexperienced hands, and these quasi-inspired leaders 
of a social revolution are whirled, Phaeton-like, into the 
very focus of glaring pride, and, as far as their own 
spiritual welfare or that of others is concerned, are utterly 
consumed in their own apparent refulgence. 



VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 95 



I would not say a word to cast ridicule or contempt on 
the noble efforts of Good Templary in the cause of tem- 
perance. The leaders in this movement, as far as I can 
judge of the few I know and esteem highly, are far re- 
moved from the extravagances of Salvationists. Neither 
they, nor their disciples will, I am quite certain, ever 
parade the highways, dancing, jumping, and gesticulating, 
and shouting at the top of their voices, — " cry out and 
bawl aloud, drink water and praise the Lord." But there 
is another danger ; and unless these leaders are prudent, 
they may see their most meritorious efforts for good 
rendered futile, by the uncontrolled spirit of private 
judgment. Encouraged by ever-growing numbers and 
large associations, irrepressible enthusiasts in the cause 
will commence to step out of the ranks, and steeped in 
ignorant self-conceit, and attributing to themselves the 
self-denying labors of the wise and good, who calmly and 
gently, and by their good example, have laid the founda- 
tions of all these blessings that attend on temperance, 
will, on every available opportunity, spout forth their own 
ill-judged and inconsiderate laudations of this cardinal 
virtue. 

I heard from a much-honored dignitary of the Angli- 
can Church, who died a short time ago in Graham stown, 
a man well known by all who were acquainted with him 
to have been, through his life, almost a total abstainer, 
that he once, on invitation, attended a meeting in the 
cause of temperance. He went, not to speak, but to aid 
the cause by his presence, and to learn something about 
its progress. But when he heard some of these ignorant 
and irresponsible members to whom I have just alluded 
lash themselves into a fury against the crime of moderate 
drinking, and denounce those who, occasionally and in 



96 



VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 



all sobriety, enjoyed God's gifts, as the chief abettors of 
scandalous excess, he felt obliged to put in his protest 
against such monstrous assumptions of individual judg- 
ment. He assured me that, for attempting to curb this 
extravagant nonsense, he too, notwithstanding his well- 
known habits, was set down by many, who could scarcely 
restrain their indignation while he spoke, as one who was 
a bitter opponent of the movement. 

Catholics, on their principles, cannot become members 
of an association of this kind which, founded on the re- 
ligion of private judgment, either ignores the Church, or 
abuses its doctrine whenever it is convenient. Catholic 
bishops and priests may not speak in terms of unquali- 
fied laudation of a religious society which is the avowed 
enemy of what they firmly believe to be the one true 
Church of God. 

But, apart from religious considerations, prudent and 
sensible men, Protestant as well as Catholic, will regard 
with apprehension a large organization which may so 
easily, by the imprudence of a few hot-headed members 
aspiring to the honor of half a dozen letters after their 
names, lead it into expressions of opinion that are revolt- 
ing to common-sense, or into courses that are fraught 
with political danger to the community. 

What I have said on Good Templary, and which 1 
believe every intelligent man, who knows anything about 
the matter, will indorse, is only another proof of the 
danger of resisting or subverting legitimate authority. 

The book, from which I have quoted a few extracts 
about remarkable vagaries of private judgment, mentions 
in its list of religious sects some that are new to me, and 
may be to most of my readers. I will note a few of 
these. There are amongst them the " Bryanites," who 



VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 97 

receive the communion seated; the "Brethren," who 
practise no rites, and have no ministers, and who baptize 
each other, and declare that to preach the Gospel is to 
deny that the Saviour's work is finished. There are also 
the " Christian Eliasites ;" the "Christian Israelites;" 
the " Christadelphians ;" the " Campbellites," who propose 
to set aside all questions of dogma, and to establish the 
unity of the Church of the Saviour. There are the 
" Morrisonites," who proclaim that "the unpardonable 
sin " is a want of belief that Christ has by His death 
saved all men, past, present, or unborn ; the " Glassites," 
into which members are admitted with a holy kiss, and 
who abstain from all animal food that has not been bled ; 
the "Banters," whose worship consists in jumping and 
clapping hands ; the " Shakers," founded by Anne Lee, 
who clap their hands and jump and shout, until they fall 
to the ground exhausted and breathless. Those who are 
interested in the subject will find full particulars in an 
admirable little book called "Catholic Belief." 

If one would care to see an amusiDg description of the 
earnest and zealous working of a few of the more re- 
markable of these modern private-judgment Christians, 
he will find it in the concluding chapter of Cardinal 
Newman's well-known story of " Loss and Gain." He 
will see there that even individual members spare no 
pains to secure proselytes, and I will add from what I 
have seen and read of these sects ex uno disce omnes. 
The members, one and all, are not satisfied with a mere 
sentimental opinion of their own rectitude, but are filled 
with a burning desire to convert, and reform, and so save 
from eternal misery, their unhappy Christian brethren 
who presume to differ from them. 

There is no limit to human credulity when it will not 



98 



VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 



be guided and restrained by the Church ; and, as the 
clever author of " John Bull and his Island " puts it, 
" The craze for religion in England, and among English 
people who are not Catholics, has come to be a mania." He 
wonders why some enterprising apostle of private judg- 
ment has not invented " Salvation Pills," and thinks an 
advertisement proclaiming their efficacy on hardened 
sinners would be a tremendous success. 

Yerily, if one were to announce that the only way to 
reach Heaven is to trudge along through the world on the 
hands and knees, there are many who would welcome the 
new Gospel, and perhaps comfort themselves against the 
derision of the sober-minded, by considering that they 
were thus giving a practical illustration of the truth of 
evolution. 

It would be easy to pile up illustrations innumerable 
of the absurdities and impiety into which men have been 
carried at all times, even from the commencement of 
Christianity to the present day, when they abandoned the 
teaching of the Church for the charms of private judg- 
ment and individual inspiration. 

Who has not heard of the monstrous excesses of Mon- 
tanus, which, in the second century, disgraced the Chris- 
tian name ? Even in these early times the piety of the 
Faithful was shocked by exhibitions of devil-worship 
and invocation, such as amaze sensible Christians of our 
own day. There was table-turning then, as we know 
from Tertullian ; and mediums, like Maximilla and 
Priscilla, guided by the spirit of darkness, led thousands 
of unwary souls to perdition. 

Who that has read any history of the time of the so- 
called Reformation, whether Protestant or Catholic, is 
not familiar with the diabolical madness of some of the 



VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 



99 



fanatical enemies of the Church, who proclaimed that 
they were inspired by the Holy Ghost % 

There was, for example, the notorious monster of in- 
quity, Bockhold, the tailor of Ley den, who proclaimed 
himself the " King of Sion," a veritable " Bluebeard," in 
the matter of murdering his eleven wives, and who only 
lacked the power to surpass, in iniquity and cruelty, the 
worst of the pagan emperors. If it be said that he was 
a madman, he could inspire his followers, who can not 
all be supposed to be deprived of reason, with the re- 
ligious frenzy which he declared came to him from the 
Spirit of God. 

There was, too, the Anabaptist Herman, who was 
moved, he said, by the same Spirit, to declare himself the 
Messias, and who preached the new gospel of rebellion 
and murder. " Kill the priests, kill all the magistrates 
in the world," he yelled, in the midst of his ranting dis- 
courses. And David George, who called himself the 
" True Son of God," and found thousands to believe that 
in him was to be perfected the Old and New Testament. 
These deluded wretches may have labored under a full 
conviction that they were inspired as well as Joanna 
Southcotte. 

They who care for details of these aberrations caused 
by acting on the principle of private judgment, and of 
the names of the prophets and guides of multitudes 
during that awful time, will find a surfeit in the pages of 
Sleidan, Brandt, and Mosheim. 

And let it not be imagined that it was only on the 
Continent of Europe that such characters exhibited their 
blatant ravings as the true Gospel. I may here mention, 
before I part with this revolting subject, that there was 
quite a crew of them in " merrie England :" Nicholas, 



100 VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 

the founder of the Familists, or "Family of Love," 
Hacket and Arthington, and Coppinger and Tenner, 
and, last but not least, George Fox, the shoemaker of 
Leicestershire, and his disciple James Naylor. When the 
last-named wretch was, by order of Parliament, flogged 
for his blasphemous exhibition in Bristol, he, as Echard 
and JSTeal tell us in their histories, permitted the fasci- 
nated women who followed him to kiss his feet and his 
wounds, and hail him as " The Prince of Peace," " The 
Rose of Sharon, the fairest of ten thousand." 

But it may be objected that these, and many others, 
were only extraordinary cases of the abuse of a sound prin- 
ciple. It was only an excess of faith, superstition if you 
will, that led good men of excitable temperament into 
impiety, and blasphemy, and revolting crimes. 

I answer, that the principle cannot be sound which, 
naturally and logically, produces such fruits, and must 
ever produce them, unless it is checked and controlled 
by the good sense, and prudence, and influence of men of 
ability who happen, by the circumstances of birth and 
education, to be mixed up with such associations. 

If the principle is once fully admitted, that Faith is a 
special inspiration vouchsafed to certain individuals, and 
that it is an instantaneous illapse of God's spirit into 
their souls, by which they are sensibly convinced of their 
justification and election, it does not require any effort to 
see the fatal consequences to reason and feeling of such 
a conviction. Ignorant men and women, who are taught 
to satisfy their ardent religious cravings with stimulating 
food like this, and to set a supernatural value on a phy- 
sical emotion like delirium, and are encouraged to work 
themselves up or allow themselves to be carried away 
by a sort of frenzy, must, if this sort of thing is not 



VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 101 



checked by sage authority, end in becoming visionaries or 
maniacs, dangerous to society, in proportion to the in- 
fluence they exercise on those around them. As one 
hysterical patient may, if allowed to shriek and cry aloud, 
communicate the nervous disease to all the female in- 
mates of a crowded hospital, and convert its wards into 
so many bedlams, so, most certainly, will this emotional 
religion, excited to the extreme by sensational preaching, 
a wailing and piercing tone of voice, and thrilling hymns, 
drive the weak-minded into madness. 

The history of revivals, all the world over, manifests 
this tendency. Many, under these influences, will imagine 
themselves endowed with spiritual gifts of the highest 
order, regard themselves as filled with the Holy Ghost, 
and transformed into the Deity Himself. That such 
effects are not more frequent is, I maintain, attributable 
only to accidental circumstances ; or to the presence or 
control of strong-minded individuals, who, by their deter- 
mined character, keep the religious furor within bounds, 
and are able to direct or subdue the storm which they 
have themselves perhaps contributed not a little to 
foment. 

There is another objection worth considering. " Admit- 
ting," it may be said, " that there are certain dangers in 
religious excitement, and that people may thus be led 
into blasphemous and impious and revolting extremes, is 
there not some set-off against this danger, in the new 
spiritual life and fervor that is thus enkindled? Is 
there not a real power for good developed by the con- 
viction of individual inspiration, which rouses the tepid 
and indifferent into active piety P 

I think the answer will at once suggest itself to the 
serious and thoughtful. Whatever is violent or excess- 



102 VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 



ive in its action on the physical frame, or the mind, or the 
affections is not lasting ; and it is invariably followed by 
a reaction. You may, of course, by a fervid appeal 
galvanize, as it were, a debased and hardened sinner, in 
whom the spiritual life is scarcely discernible, into some- 
thing like vigorous activity. But the emotion will 
quickly pass away, if it be not sustained by a power more 
real than mere sentiment. 

In the Catholic Church this is well known. An elo- 
quent and zealous priest, filled with the spirit of his 
vocation, will often wake up the soul long slumbering in 
the fatal torpor of sin, to shame and regret. But his ex- 
perience assures him, that even sincere and heart-felt emo- 
tion, revealing itself perhaps in tears and sobs, will be no 
guarantee of a real conversion unless the voice of God, 
speaking to the sinner through His appointed organ, be 
supported by sacramental grace. 

Those who ridicule the Sacraments, and place their en- 
tire confidence, for the permanency of conversion, in the 
suggestions of private judgment and individual inspira- 
tion, are resting their hopes on the weak arm of the flesh, 
and on a belief that is only human. A real change of 
heart is the work of the Omnipotent God Himself, acting 
through the ordinary means appointed by His Divine 
Son to bring about and secure a real and lasting conver- 
sion. 

Again I seem to hear another objection : " What is the 
use of dwelling on the many diversities of Christian be- 
lief, and the distortions which private judgment, swayed 
by extravagant notions of individual inspiration, has 
effected in the teaching of the Founder of Christianity ? 
After all, Christians of every denomination look up to 
the one Christ as their great Master. All honor and rev- 



VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 103 



erence Him as the Author and Finisher of £ our common 
Christianity.' Is there not something superior to mere 
particular dogma, and peculiar forms of worship, in this 
united homage ? If some believe more and some less of 
what He has taught us, may it not be that certain por- 
tions of the Gospel have a special attraction for individ- 
uals ; and if unqualified admiration for these portions of 
the Divine message, so absorbs the attention of different 
sects, as to shut out from their view other truths equally 
admirable, what is this but an expression of man's free 
choice unfettered by anything like coercion, and there- 
fore more in accordance with man's natural diversity of 
taste and disposition, and the spontaneous expression of 
his homage? What can be conceived more beautiful 
than this grand feature, stamped on all the works of God 
throughout creation, — ' unity in variety ' % Two blades of 
grass are not in every respect alike. No two flowers, 
even on the same stem, bear an exact resemblance to each 
other. Children of the same parents are so rarely alike 
in the color of their eyes, or of the hair, or in entire con- 
formity of feature, that perfect resemblance would excite 
amazement. This is in fact the grand distinction be- 
tween the most perfectly finished works of men and those 
of nature. When cunning artists have produced ' a 
thing of beauty ' that charms the public taste and creates 
a wide demand, elaborate machinery is invented to per- 
petuate this joy ; and one of these prized articles is so 
exactly like another that the most practised eye cannot 
detect a shade of difference. Why should not the same 
ever-varying features, that constitute the charms of na- 
ture's every production, mark also the natural expression 
of unrestrained and individual Faith ? And then, where 
is the essential difference of opinion in the fundamental 



104 VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 



tenets of Christian belief, that one form of announcing it 
must be considered in direct opposition to another?" 

There are many large-hearted and benevolent disposi- 
tions who love to reason in this way, and the practical 
outcome of their kindly speculations on religion is this : 
u That one form of Christianity is as good as another ; and 
that if we are in earnest in accepting whatever commends 
itself specially to our choice, and treasure the pearl which 
we have found by our own individual study, amid the in- 
numerable gems of heavenly beauty unfolded to us in 
Eevelation, we are far more likely to be happy in this 
world, and the world to come, than if we were to spend 
our time in finding fault with each other's selection, or 
embittering our minds with uncharitable reflections." 

It seems a pity to trample rudely on these flowers of 
fancy, and scatter these charming theories to the winds. 
But truth is, of its very nature, intolerant. There is but 
one true Faith, as there is but one God — " one Lord, one 
Faith, one Baptism" (Eph. iv. 5). And without this one 
Faith, " it is impossible to please God " (Heb. xi. 6). We 
are not sent into this world to pick, and choose, and please 
ourselves, by selecting certain portions of the Divine 
teaching. Christ wished, that those who were to announce 
His law, should teach all things whatsoever He commanded 
them, and He pronounces a terrible decree against those 
who will not accept His doctrine in all its plenitude : 
" He that believeth not shall be condemned " (Mark xvi. 
16). 

As he has solemnly declared by the mouth of His 
Apostle, in reference to the precepts of the moral law, 
that " those who offend in one shall become guilty of 
all " (James ii. 10), so must it be understood in reference 
to Faith. As to transgress, in a grave matter, one pre- 



VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 



105 



cept of the moral law will as effectually exclude the 
guilty and unrepentant from Heaven as if they had vio- 
lated the whole code ; so will they be condemned who, 
knowing that every dogma of Faith rests on the truth of 
God, have dared wilfully and deliberately to call this 
truth into question even on a single point. 

Men who amuse their kindly dispositions with pretty 
conceits like those mentioned in the objection I am com- 
bating seem to forget, that it rests not with men, but 
with God and His Infallible Church, to lay down the 
conditions of salvation. As to every Christian sect hon- 
oring Christ in its own peculiar way, it seems a strange 
way of honoring Him, to deny His divinity, or to declare 
that any part of the Divine message exceeds the bounds 
of credibility. 

Men would feel deeply aggrieved and insulted, if they 
were charged with breaking their word solemnly pledged, 
or accused of making lying promises. Either it is a fact 
that Christ promised to preserve the teaching Church 
from error, by His own abiding presence and the unfail- 
ing guidance of the Holy Ghost, or He did not. If He 
did, and the Church at any time erred in its teaching, 
then He has clearly violated a solemn compact, and can- 
not therefore be the God of Truth. If He never made 
( any promise of the kind, then the whole Catholic Church 
from the beginning, and all Christendom, for fifteen hun- 
dred years, attributed a meaning to His words, which 
they could not bear ; and hence there is no security in 
interpreting the Divine Revelation. Where an error so 
grave, affecting, as it does, the very basis of Divine 
Faith, could have been so universal and so lasting, it 
would be absurd to maintain that there is no fear of seri- 
ous error in individual or private judgment. 



106 VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 



If the infallibility of the Church is not a fundamental 
dogma, one is at a loss to conceive what is meant by the 
expression " fundamental." Apart from the fact that it is 
altogether beyond the scope of man's right to pronounce 
what is or what is not fundamental in doctrine, announced 
to the world by its Creator and its God, that dogma evi- 
dently lies at the bottom of all revealed truth, which alone 
can determine with certainty its Divine character. If 
there is no such thing as an Infallible Church to explain 
the true meaning of the Word of God, then there is no 
Divine teaching whatever. All knowledge of God that 
is possible in this supposition, is merely human specula- 
tion. We are consequently left, by the Being who alone 
has a right to lay down the conditions of salvation, and 
who has, according to the general admission of all Chris- 
tians, made Faith the most important of them all, with- 
out the possibility of complying with any of these con- 
ditions. 

Whoever receives the mystery of the Incarnation in 
all its plenitude, as a fixed dogma of Divine Faith, can 
see at a glance, that true Faith in the Blessed Eucharist is 
the means by which we are enabled individually to apply 
to ourselves the fruits of this mystery. In the Blessed 
Eucharist, or the Holy Communion, we are made one 
with Christ : we therein receive the participation of the 
Divine life, and may hope to be raised up on the last 
day. If the true meaning of this mystery is not that 
always given and clearly taught by the Catholic Church ; 
if there is no such thing as a Real Presence, or if it does 
not much matter whether there is or is not ; if it does 
not signify anything whether we eat bread and drink 
wine in memory of Christ, or eat His flesh and drink His 



VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 107 

blood in the Catholic sense, and there is no certain way 
of settling this all-important difficulty, — then, whether we 
like it or not, we are forced into the position taken by 
unbelievers in Eevelation. To be consistent, we must 
say that all that was once firmly believed may be a mere 
allegory, or an oriental dream, a mere invention of man, 
founded on a complete misunderstanding of the sublime 
teaching of the " great Philosopher Christ." 

I believe I am not exaggerating the cogency of the 
denial of Infallibility in the least. And, of course, the 
practical conclusion to which we are forced by private 
judgment is simply this : that the sooner all denomina- 
tions of Christians who are not Catholics, give up their 
delusions, the better. They should, as reasonable beings 
bound by no obligation to receive God's teaching, since 
they can only guess at His meaning, settle down quietly 
to natural Theism, or Deism, or what is called " the Re- 
ligion of Humanity." This inevitable and logical con- 
clusion from the premises of private judgment will be 
the best for their individual comfort, and the material 
prosperity of the only world of which we can know any- 
thing with positive certainty. 

In the mean time, while the busy world is thus advanc- 
ing towards Rationalism or Agnosticism, or any other 
ism that will amuse its fancies, and turning its back on 
Christ, we Catholics- can well imagine that the com- 
passionate Saviour, with heart bruised and broken at the 
world's ingratitude, says to us, " Will you also go away ?" 
It is our greatest comfort that, without a moment's hesi- 
tation, we, clinging to the Infallible Church, can say with 
the Apostle chosen to be its Head forever on earth, 
" Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of 



108 VAGARIES OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 



eternal life. And we have believed and have known 
that thou art the Christ, the Son of God" (John vi. 68, 
69, 70). 

In the next chapter, I purpose, in continuance of this 
important subject, to show, that in Catholic Christianity 
we possess a firm basis for reasonable Faith ; and that 
outside the teaching of the Church there can exist only, 
in regard to " the one thing necessary," mere vague spec- 
ulation or superstitious credulity. 



NON-CATHOLIC CREDULITY. 



109 



CHAPTEE V. 
Reasonable Faith and Non-Catholic Credulity. 

HUMANTJM est eirare," or the axiom that it is 
only natural for man to fall into mistakes, is 
often quoted to show that the dogma of a human infalli- 
ble guide is not to be looked for, or taken into account, 
in considering the religious question. Iso man, it is 
argued, is infallible ; therefore no assembly of men, or no 
combination of individual opinions, can establish the ab- 
solute certainty of any doctrine. But a distinction at 
once suggests itself. If men are not directed in their 
judgment of a doctrine by the spirit of truth, granted, or 
let the argument pass. But if there are unquestionable 
proofs of this supernatural guidance, then the unerring 
testimony of God can manifest itself by the mouth of 
even one individual. All Christians are united in receiv- 
ing, as positive and certain truth, the declarations of the 
inspired prophets. When the course of events, hundreds 
of years after the announcement of an inspired prophet, 
made clear as day the meaning of the prophetic words, 
so that those who deny the prophecy can controvert it 
only on the ground that it was subsequent to the event 
supposed to be predicted, it is evident that the God of 
truth has spoken through His inspired servant. 

All the prophecies bearing on the advent and life and 
sufferings of the Messias are of this incontrovertible 
character. "We can meditate on the pictures of the 
Passion of our Divine Lord drawn by the hand of Isaias 



110 



SEASONABLE FAITH 



or Jeremias, as on those presented to us in the history of 
the Evangelists. We behold the cruel scourging, so ex- 
pressly set before us in the words of the royal prophet : 
supra dorsum meum, fabricaverunt (Ps. cxxviii. 3) — 
They have wrought or worked, as smiths striking on the 
anvil with heavy hammers, on my back : as when we read 
of the whole band of soldiers being gathered together, 
for this inhuman torture, in the hall of Pilate. And no 
visions vouchsafed to holy contemplatives of the meek 
patience of the Man-God, under this punishment, can sur- 
pass in description the sublime words of Isaias : " He 
shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be 
dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open 
his mouth" (Isaias liii. 7). No wonder that the first 
philosophic enemies of Christianity, reading in the 
Prophets all the minute circumstances of the death-thirst, 
the casting of the dice for the garments, the piercing of 
the spear, the body rent and torn, so that the bones could 
be numbered, the digging out of the wounds in the hands 
and feet, and other details of the sacred Passion, should 
have been forced to declare, that all these circumstances, 
so exactly described, could only have been derived from 
eye-witnesses of the cruel tragedy. 

Individual men enlightened by the Holy Spirit saw 
these things more vividly than the crowds who actually 
witnessed them in the flesh : and therefore, I say, Chris- 
tians of all denominations concur in the belief that these 
inspired men were infallible, just as they agree in believ- 
ing, that the minds and hands of the Evangelists and the 
sacred writers were guided by the unerring spirit of 
God. 

It is possible, therefore, from the very fact of these ad- 
mitted inspirations, that weak fallible men may, when it 



AND NON-CATHOLIC CREDULITY. Ill 



pleases God, be raised above the possibility of self- 
deception. 

And if it is absolutely certain, that a solemn promise 
was given by the Eedeemer, that they who were sent and 
commissioned to teach His law were, to the end of all 
things in this world, to be guided and assisted, in their 
office of teaching, by the same Holy Spirit, their utter- 
ances, too, could not deceive us. 

There is no weight, therefore, a priori in any axiom 
accepted by mankind regarding the inherent fallibility of 
men, taken individually or collectively, that can militate 
against the Catholic principle. If God willed to make 
even the most feeble instruments proof against the weak- 
ness of fallible human testimony, He could really effect 
what He willed. The infallibility consequently of human 
teachers, under certain circumstances, can be as assured as 
Divine truth itself. 

This point being disposed of, we can reasonably con- 
sider the claim of the Catholic Church to teach mankind, 
with unfailing certainty, the true meaning of every word 
of the Divine message contained in either the written 
word, or the traditions of those who learned the truth 
from the lips of the son of God Himself. 

It seems a very simple way to disprove all testimony 
of a supernatural fact, by arguing that there can be noth- 
ing of a supernatural character in this world of fixed and 
stable laws. But if only one supernatural fact can be 
attested, by human testimony so strong, that to doubt it 
would be to suppose as great, or greater, a departure from 
the ordinary laws that govern our being, than that which 
is implied in the fact itself, the whole argument against 
the supernatural fact is upheaved from its very founda- 
tions. That which is absolutely impossible can never 



112 



REASONABLE FAITH 



come to pass, under any circumstances whatever. If it is 
evident that an immense multitude of eye-witnesses, who 
cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be supposed to 
have a common motive to deceive, unite in declaring that 
a certain thing has taken place, apparently repugnant to 
all known experience, then if they are deceived, there is 
nothing certain in this world. "We may doubt even our 
own existence, and accept the philosophy of Berkeley pure 
and simple. Berkeley maintained that there was no such 
thing as matter, because the sensations which, prove to us 
the existence of matter may, like the dreams of the de- 
lirious, be purely imaginary. 

The best answer to this ingenious system of philosophy 
is that of Lord Byron : "If Bishop Berkeley said there 
was no matter, 'twas no matter what Bishop Berkeley 
said." 

Such quasi-philosophy is mere subtle phraseology that 
mocks common-sense. It is just the same with regard 
to Infallibility. Men who are opposed to the principle of 
Catholic Faith may scout, in the strongest language, the 
bare notion of inf allible guidance ; but their fiercest de- 
nunciations of the principle melt away, like mist before 
the sunbeam, when it is as evident as two and two make 
four, that even one prophecy has been literally and ex- 
actly fulfilled. Prophecy, or the fore-telling, hundreds of 
years before the actual occurrence of the event, something 
which could not by any human calculation be guessed at, 
can be accounted for only by a revelation on the part of 
the great Being who knows all things. The occurrence 
of the event, just as it was predicted, proves that the 
human being who declared that it should happen was, in 
this matter, protected from error by infallible guidance. 
Infallibility is therefore possible. 



AND NON-CATHOLIC CREDULITY. 



113 



I have dwelt upon this point, because it is the point so 
much insisted on at the present day, as the decisive test 
against anything of a supernatural character in this world. 
These things, prophecy, miracles, infallibility, are directly 
opposed to what we know of human power ; therefore, it 
is argued, they cannot be proved by evidence itself. 

The old argument of Hume, and men of his school, 
that physical and moral evidence are of so different a 
• nature, that there can be no comparison between them, 
and that the evidence of experience must, of its nature, 
subvert the very foundations of the most perfect human 
testimony, is one of these fallacies, which would never be 
accepted as sound reasoning, but for the immense influ- 
ence of blind and deep-seated prejudice. 

JSTow starting from this point, that God may, when He 
pleases, so completely overrule our natural tendency to 
self-deception as, by human organs, to make His law 
stronger in its influence over our convictions, and clearer 
in its claims on our obedience, than any evident obliga- 
tion imposed on us by our fellow-men, we see at once the 
solid basis of Catholic teaching. 

It is all reducible to this : can we certainly, and beyond 
all doubt, know that Infinite truth has unfolded itself to 
us, and can God so provide as to secure us from all de- 
ception in beholding this truth, and knowing, with abso- 
lute certainty, its full meaning? If so, we can have 
Faith ; if noi, Faith in the proper sense of the word is 
impossible. But I have proved that He can, and I have 
also proved that He has actually, by the clearest prom- 
ises, undertaken to secure for all who will accept His ar- 
rangements the acquisition of this truth, as He wills us 
to understand it. Therefore, all without exception — the 
ignorant as well as the learned — have it within their power 



114 



SEASONABLE FAITH 



to know, with infallible certainty, everything that He 
has required to be known and believed in order to salva- 
tion. 

This is the ground of the Catholic Rule of Faith, 
sound, solid, and irrefragable. They who accept the con- 
ditions and the state of authoritative teaching which He 
established when He commissioned His Apostles, and 
those who were to succeed them in the office of teaching, 
to perform this duty to the end of time, may believe, 
with full and entire confidence, what is thus conveyed to 
them. To those who reject this authoritative teaching, 
Divine Faith is an absolute impossibility. 

I do not for a moment mean to say that there may not 
be, outside the Catholic fold, a pious Faith, a well-mean- 
ing and a trusting Faith ; but I maintain, that except on 
Catholic principles, there can be no reasonable or logical 
Faith. 

]STo one with a mind trained like that of Mary Som- 
merville, for instance, could derive comfort and calm 
fortitude from a belief that is not built on the clear and 
express and certain meaning of the Divine message. A 
mind like hers would, no doubt, find delight in reading 
the sacred Scriptures, and be charmed with " those com- 
positions which even humanly considered," as Cardinal 
JSTewman puts it, "are amongst the most sublime and 
beautiful ever written ;" but a mere emotional Faith like 
this, if it may properly be called Faith at all, could not 
possibly deliver a mind like hers from the terrors and 
anxieties involved in the dark future. 

I have often met men to whom I looked up with re- 
spect and almost veneration for their blameless lives and 
well-known honor and uprightness, and heard them speak 
in language that thrilled my heart, by the expression of 



AND NON-CATHOLIC CREDULITY. 115 



the joy and consolation which they had derived from the 
pious study of the Bible. 

There is before me now the vision of a fine old gentle- 
man, who faithfully served his country and the cause of 
his co-religionists, and was universally respected ; and 
his words, when I met him for the last time, as, at the 
age of fourscore and ten, he was bending towards his 
last home, will ever live in my remembrance. "I am 
waiting for the Master's call." He was what his fellow- 
Methodists would call " a God-fearing man, full of years, 
and ripe for glory." It never entered into his mind, per- 
haps, to doubt the security of his Faith, any more than it 
did, according to the principles in which he had been 
trained, to doubt that he had found peace, and was ac- 
ceptable to God. His was, beyond doubt, a pious Faith ; 
and his good will may, before the end, have securely 
bound him to the Rock of Ages. What we Catholics 
must regard, according to the teaching of the Church, 
presumption and a dangerous illusion, may have been, in 
his case, only the simple exaggeration of pious sentiment 
and trusting hope in the infinite merits of his Saviour. 
We may therefore well believe, that these sentiments, 
fondly cherished for many years, had developed in his 
soul that real love for God which wins to itself, in spite 
of many imperfections, the Divine Love in return, — " I 
love those who love me," — and that the one true Faith, 
" without which it is impossible to please God," was in- 
fused into him by an extraordinary grace. I could not 
help praying for the happy repose of his soul, even 
though during life he would probably have regarded 
such prayer as a poor service, and a lamentable super- 
stition. 

I saw once, on a tombstone in the Catholic cemetery 



116 



REASONABLE FAITH 



of Grahamstown, " He was one of the old settlers, may 
their souls rest in peace, Amen and I wondered if the 
descendants of these worthy folk, who trusted for their 
salvation in the standards drawn up by the Rev. John 
Wesley, could forgive this expression of simple Catholic 
Faith and good will to all men. I dare say not. They 
would probably shrug their shoulders in pity or contempt 
for an expression not to be found in their human inter- 
pretation of the Gospel. 

I will hope, however, that my venerable friend will 
not think the worse of me if my short prayer, well 
meant at any rate, helped him to pass the dread ordeal of 
judgment. 

It is, I know, extremely difficult to treat of the neces- 
sity of true Faith in order to please God, and to set the 
matter plainly before the public, without hurting the 
tender susceptibilities which have been fed and nursed 
amid the superstitions and credulity of mere human 
standards of religion. But, in a work of this kind, the 
plain truth must be stated, for " woe is unto me if I preach 
not the Gospel" (1 Cor. ix. 16). And I cannot repeat 
too frequently that it is not human standards, or the plan 
of belief deduced from the sacred Scriptures by the pri- 
vate judgment of fallible men, that fixes the conditions 
of salvation. It is the will of God alone, expressed either 
in His written or unwritten "Word, and explained in its 
true sense by the divinely appointed teacher, that can 
give any one security in a matter of so great importance. 

Pious sentiment may, from the force of habit, grow 
into something like a conviction, and enable good old 
people, and young and fervent souls, to end their days in 
peace : but " not every one that saith Lord, Lord, shall 
enter into the kingdom of heaven : but he that doeth 



AND NON-CATHOLIC CREDULITY. 



117 



the will of my Father, who is in heaven, he shall enter 
into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. vii. 21.) 

I dare say it will appear to many, that the heading of 
this chapter, and the development of the subject, seem a 
curious "turning of the tables." One of the most 
ordinary charges against Papists is, that they are weak- 
minded, credulous, and superstitious. When the question 
of credulity and superstition is calmly considered, it will 
be found to be quite the other way. Catholics ground 
their Faith on reasonable and certain premises ; they 
who reject authoritative teaching are, whatever they may 
fancy, the veritable slaves of mere human opinions, and 
the blind votaries of canting sentiment and pious wordi- 
ness. 

I remember well a common saying of the learned 
Bishop who preceded me in this vicariate. Whenever 
his profound knowledge of Catholic truth, whether dog- 
matic, moral, or historical, was outraged by ignorant 
assumptions and violent charges against the Church, he 
used to declare as a sort of axiom which had fixed itself 
in his mind, — " Be sure that the people who make these 
unfounded charges are only betraying their own weak- 
nesses." 

So it is here. They who call Catholics superstitious 
and credulous, are themselves the most credulous and 
superstitious of human beings. It was this telling argu- 
ment which St. Paul applied to the proud philosophers 
of Athens, when, rebutting the charge urged by them 
against the superstitions of Christians, he called attention 
to their worship of the " unknown God," and pointed to 
the altar bearing this inscription, as an evident proof that 
they of all men were the most superstitious. (Acts xvii. 
22.) 



118 



REASONABLE FAITH 



These strong expressions, so continually applied to 
Catholics, and the common prejudice, so engrained in 
the minds of the shrewd men of the world against Catho- 
lics, that even gentlemen by education, and wealth, and 
position, do not hesitate to say to their Catholic friends, 
" You Catholics will believe anything," have their origin 
only in wrong ideas about Divine Faith. Faith of 
this kind, the only true Faith, comes not from the 
evidence of sense, or from the close study of material 
phenomena, or from the conclusions of experience ; it 
comes from the Word of God, not the mere letter which 
contains it, but from the true meaning conveyed in these 
vehicles of thought. 

St. Paul declares, that the Jews were governed by 
sight, and the pagan Gentiles by reason ; but that neither 
went simply by Faith. And the Apostle dwells on what 
was unknown to the world before Christianity, as a 
motive of belief — " The obedience of Faith," and " The 
foolishness of preaching" (2 Cor. ix. 13 ; 1 Cor. i. 21). 
Cardinal Newman puts the point with such marvellous 
power, that I set aside the current of my own thoughts, 
to quote his words : 

" The Apostles did not rest their cause on argument, 
they did not rely on eloquence, wisdom, or reputation ; 
nay, nor did they make miracles necessary to the enforce- 
ment of their claims. They did not resolve Faith into 
sight and reason ; they contrasted it with both, and bade 
their hearers believe, sometimes in spite, sometimes in 
default, sometimes in aid, of sight and reason. They 
came as commissioned from Him " whom they igno- 
rantly worshipped," and declared that mankind was a 
guilty and outcast race ; that sin was misery ; that the 
world was a snare ; that life was a shadow ; that God was 



AND NON-CATHOLIC CREDULITY. 119 



everlasting, and that His law was holy and true, and its 
sanctions certain and terrible ; that He also was all- 
merciful; that He had appointed a Mediator between 
Him and them, who had removed all obstacles, and was 
desirous to restore them, and that He had sent them- 
selves to explain how. They said, that that Mediator 
had come and gone ; but had left behind Him what was 
to be His representative till the end of all things, His 
mystical Body, the Church, in joining which lay the 
salvation of the world." (" Lectures on Justification," 
p. 270.) 

" Thus the Apostles tamed the pagan breast; 
They argued not, but preached, and conscience did the rest." 

It was no argumentative belief which they announced, 
but by their authority and their high commission, they 
forced their hearers either to receive the Word which 
they preached, or simply to reject it. If those whom 
they addressed yielded the submission, and obedience, and 
undoubting assent of entire belief in their words, they 
received them into the body of the faithful. If, on the 
other hand, any rejected the Divine message, the Apos- 
tles left them to their hopeless incredulity. 

It is evident, from the very nature of the Divine Eev- 
elation, that voluntary acceptance in this simple un- 
questioning way, is the very essence of the Faith preached 
in the beginning of the Church. The Apostles preached 
what seemed " to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the 
Gentiles foolishness :" but they declared, that it was by 
this very foolishness of their preaching, that the great 
God designed to save His erring and fallen creatures. 

If this notion of Faith is compared with the belief of 
Christians who are not Catholics, at the present day, how 



120 



REASONABLE FAITH 



striking is the contrast ! It is, as I have already said, the 
proud boast of Protestant Christians, that they search 
even into the mysteries of the Divine Revelation, and 
that they will believe only whatever parts of this Pevela- 
tion commend themselves to their approval. They may 
give a sort of adhesion to this or that truth, — admit, for 
instance, the Incarnation, always on condition that this 
mystery is not pressed on their acceptance in its full 
and obvious meaning. They will allow that Christ is a 
being partly God and partly man, but reserve to them- 
selves the right of questioning or doubting, or absolutely 
denying, that Mary is the Mother of God ; or that the 
God-Man really suffered and died in His human nature, 
or that there are really three Persons in God or that the 
wicked shall go into everlasting fire. 

What becomes of " the obedience of the Faith" in 
these dispositions ? This picking, and choosing, and sub- 
jecting truths, that are manifestly beyond the reach of 
reason, to what is called common-sense, is simply subject- 
ing the Word of God to the digestion of human reason, 
and worshipping, with the abject superstition of degraded 
paganism, the miserable residue of earthy stuff, after it 
has been moulded or fashioned to a shape that pleases the 
passing fancy of the hour. 

Here is credulity in its most debasing form. Men 
proclaiming loudly that they are far above the contempt 
and ridicule which an unbelieving world heaps on Catho- 
lic Faith, while they are, like silly children, amusing their 
ever-changing caprices, in decking out in many-colored 
garments the idol that charms them. 

I have heard of the poor ignorant Hindoo, who takes 
his god to the banks of the sacred river and washes the 
object of his devotion, over an^ 1 over again, with marvel- 



AND NON-CATHOLIC CREDULITY. 121 



lous patience, when mischief- loving youngsters watch the 
opportunity of defiling it with well-directed volleys of 
mud and dirt. It is a pitiful spectacle. But is it less 
pitiful, to the mind that rises above the mists of passion 
and prejudice, and from the solid ground of Catholic 
Faith, contemplates the transformations of mere human 
religions as they are decked out and adorned with orna- 
ments borrowed from the Gospel \ 

Catholics will believe anything, no matter how absurd, 
it is confidently stated by the enemies of the Church. 
No ; they will believe nothing, with the full assent of 
Faith, but what is set before them by the teaching of the 
Infallible Church, which our Divine Lord commands us 
to hear and obey. 

They may be disposed, and every Catholic is disposed, 
to receive with reverence everything he hears on good 
authority of the wonderful condescension of the Divine 
manifestations, that so often reward simple, docile Faith. 
Meditating constantly on the great mysteries unfolded 
in the grand fundamental truth that the Everlasting God 
became flesh and shared our sorrows ; accustomed from 
his earliest years by the teaching of a pious mother, and 
by the pictures and symbols which are so constantly used 
in the education of Catholics, to realize to himself the 
mysteries of the life, and passion, and death of our 
Divine Lord, he is trained not to wonder at any mark of 
this infinite condescension to His faithful servants which 
may be manifested from time to time. It is only, he 
says within himself, what one might hope for from a love 
that never changes nor is altered in its intensity. He 
thinks of Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, 
and forever, and of the tender relations that bind forever 
the Divine Redeemer to His Virgin Mother, and is there- 



122 



REASONABLE FAITH 



fore not surprised that special graces are bestowed on 
those who show their loving adoration for Him, by 
honoring her with a constant devotion. She, by her free 
consent, enabled Him to display the length and breadth 
and depth of His mercy towards mankind. The pious 
Catholic loves to contemplate the helpless Child in the 
arms of the young mother, and to imagine to himself 
how confidingly the Child, who was God, lay upon her 
bosom. He knows that if the prayer of a just man 
availeth much, her prayers to her Divine Son, must be 
most efficacious. Knowing that there is joy in Heaven 
even for one sinner that doeth penance, and that Mary, 
full of that grace and love which is the air of Heaven, 
ardently desires the conversion of sinners, he is not 
amazed when he hears that the Blessed Yirgin has mani- 
fested herself to children, and, through them, has sent a 
kindly warning to those who, by their impiety, and blas- 
phemy, and riotous excesses, are crucifying again the Son 
of God, and, by their heartless mockery of His suffer- 
ings, sadden the Sacred Heart and cast a gloom over the 
joy of the Angels. " What wonder is it ? " he exclaims, 
as he hears of extraordinary manifestations like this, " it 
is only what might be expected after all from the infinite 
mercy of God our Saviour, and from her who co-operated, 
as far as a creature could, in the reparation for sin, as she 
stood at the foot of the cross." 

The Faith of a Catholic is not called upon to believe 
these wonders. He receives them with a natural in- 
stinct towards belief, that has been engendered in him by 
Faith. He does not take upon himself to decide whether 
what is reported far and wide as having really happened 
is correct or not. It does not much concern him. It 
may be quite true ; knowing what we know by Faith 



AND NON-CATHOLIC CREDULITY. 123 

of God's love for His wayward children, and how the 
heart of Mary must beat in unison with the Sacred 
Heart, it is, he believes, more than probable. No one 
can say, until the ecclesiastical authorities have made a 
rigid examination and submitted it to the Head of the 
Church. If the Holy Father will give his sanction to de- 
votions that have their origin in the supposed event, or 
encourages the building of churches and sanctuaries on 
the spot where the apparition showed itself, then it is 
almost certain that the Holy Father himself believes what 
has been circulated through the Church. But whether 
this sort of indirect approval is given or not, no Catho- 
lic for a moment imagines that he is bound to exercise 
his Faith about it. It has nothing more to do with the 
Deposit of truth confided to the Apostles and the Church, 
than to serve as an illustration of the consoling doctrines 
preserved therein by the watchful care of the Holy 
Ghost. 

I remember once asking the first Bishop of the Eastern 
Vicariate, what could be the reason of the miracle of St. 
Januarius, so much venerated in southern Italy. I had 
previously read the authenticated account of this miracle, 
considered attentively what Sir Humphry Davy said 
about it, and spoken with Protestant gentlemen who 
had witnessed it. The expression of one of these, — an 
Anglican minister of high position, who was telling me 
what he had seen, and who, in reply to my question, 
"Did you really believe that the blood of the mar- 
tyred Bishop was liquefied in this miraculous manner ?" 
said : " Did I believe it ? It would be too dreadful to 
imagine for a moment the possibility of deception," — 
made a strong impression on my mind. I asked the 
Bishop the question mentioned above, with no doubt 



124 



REASONABLE EAITJI 



whatever that all I had read and heard about this extraor- 
dinary fact was true, After gently pointing out to me 
the unreasonableness of asking why the great God should 
or should not do anything He pleased in His own world, 
he said that one might easily see a reason for a special 
manifestation, amongst people so weak and so influenced 
by stormy passions, ever warring against Faith, and at 
the same time so childlike in the simplicity of their 
Faith. " It is only," he continued, " what we might natu- 
rally expect from the infinite goodness of God, who wills 
" that none should perish, but that all should be con- 
verted and live." 

This, according to Protestant notions, is rank super- 
stition. I would say, on the contrary, with the good 
Bishop, It is only the instinct of real Faith, that feeds 
itself on the contemplation of our Divine Saviour's 
love. 

But, as I have already said, the Catholic Church does 
not require her children to believe, with anything like 
Divine Faith, these and similar wonders of which we hear 
so frequently. The substance of Faith is the everlasting 
and unchanging truth, announced in the first Revelation 
made to man in the garden of Paradise, continued 
through the Patriarchs and Prophets, and confirmed by 
the teaching of our Divine Lord. Faith, " the substance 
of things hoped for, the conviction of things that appear 
not" (Heb. xi. 1), is ever ancient and ever new. It is 
gradually unfolding itself, as the world grows colder and 
more indifferent to the things of God. Its last manifes- 
tation is the wonderfully consoling doctrine of the Sacred 
Heart, which, though comparatively new in its present 
development, was ever included in the profound mys- 
tery of God's love for sinful man. 



AND NON-CATHOLIC CREDULITY. 



125 



I fancy I hear the exclamations of wonder which Prot- 
estants will give way to, at my credulity, when they read 
what I have written abont the reverence which good 
Catholics should pay to accounts of supernatural mani- 
festations. They have made np their minds, at least on 
one point connected with religion, that such things can- 
not possibly be. The enlightenment of this age, they 
boast, has effectually disposed of all such silly pretensions ; 
and they add, whatever may be said of the other claims 
of Catholic Christianity to be the one true religion, these 
claims are all overwhelmed in the contemptible rubbish 
of the worn-out legends of the dark ages. 

I admit at once, that Protestants never think of looking 
for a miraculous interposition in their favor. How could 
they ? The wretched apostates who rebelled against the 
Church in the sixteenth century tried, it is said, to play 
at miracles. Luther and Calvin made certain attempts, 
which covered them with the ridicule of Catholics, and 
excited the shame and confusion of their own disciples. 
Some of the fanatics mentioned in the fourth chapter, 
and men and women of the same stamp, occasionally 
tried the same game, but found it would not answer. 
Pious enthusiasts, belonging to the ranks of emotional 
Christianity, tell strange things of their experiences. But 
these imagined ecstasies, this sensible finding of peace, 
this instantaneous sanctification by the palpable effects of 
the presence of the Holy Spirit, may be, if they are really 
felt, indications of the workings of a lying spirit, who 
can transform himself into an angel of light. 

At any rate, such sensations are merely subjective. 
Wild gestures, convulsions, hysterical cries, can scarcely 
be regarded, by sober-minded people, as " signs and por- 
tents" meant by the Almighty for our edification. 



126 



REASONABLE FAITH 



And so we may consider it as a fixed thing that Prot- 
estants have nothing practically to do with miracles and 
supernatural manifestations. Such things, on their own 
notions of religion and the principles their leaders have 
laid down, have passed away long ago, and they can 
know nothing about them. When Dr. Dollinger, with 
his grim humor, says that the only miracle to which 
Luther could point, as a proof of his extraordinary mis- 
sion, was that bad priests married, and a number of rest- 
less spirits left their convents, all that need be said on 
this subject is pretty well summed up in these few words 
of the German historian, who of all living men knows 
most of the doings of that wild revolutionary time. 

If determined unbelievers in the supernatural were 
present at any of these wonderful things recounted by 
the learned Laserre, once as sceptical as any of them, but 
converted by his own miraculous cure, and which, he 
says, are constantly taking place at the grotto of Lourdes, 
they would disbelieve- their own eyes, and probably en- 
tertain grave anxieties about losing their reason. 

I fancy I hear the exclamation of a thoroughly ortho- 
dox Protestant, whose patience has been severely tried 
by what I have written on this subject — " Quite so ; such 
a witness should at once subject himself to medical treat- 
ment, or have himself locked up in a mad-house, when 
he felt the first symptom of this craze." 

I cannot help feeling amused, as I picture to myself 
this inflexible incredulity. It is quite on a par with the 
indignation and rage of the scientists when allusion is 
made by any of their friends to the merciful interposition 
of Providence in rescuing them from appalling danger, 
or a malady that seemed beyond the reach of medical 
skill. 



AND NON-CATHOLIC CREDULITY. 127 



I have before my mental vision a pompous old doctor, 
who, when I was a child, used to attract my attention by 
the peculiarities of his majestic bearing. He was, I 
afterwards learned, " the prophet and the guide" of a 
select circle in my native town, who were taught by him 
to ridicule the notion of a personal God, and to amuse 
themselves with the interesting phenomena of vulgar 
piety. " Well, my good woman," he would say to a 
poor Catholic who had applied to him for medical relief 
in severe illness, "how do you feel to-day?" "Oh, 
thanks be to God, ever so much better." The reply was 
worthy of the man, and it was in a manner stereotyped, — 
" Thank your good doctor, and not your God." Here 
was scientific wisdom ; but the wisdom of these sages 
"is foolishness with God," and revolting in its stupid 
pride to the instincts of a Christian child. 

I wonder the common-sense of those who are always 
sneering at the simple Faith of Catholics, does not 
prompt them to examine into the authentic evidence of 
even one miraculous cure. 

The story is well known of the intelligent Protestant, 
who, urged by this natural impulse to find out if there 
was any real truth in such things, obtained the official 
papers required at the Beatification or Canonization of 
a Saint. He carefully went through the voluminous 
records, which included the testimony of physicians 
who had examined into the circumstances of an alleged 
miracle, not omitting the cross-examination of the offi- 
cial known as the " devil's advocate." When he had 
conscientiously studied the case, and satisfied himself that 
certainly there were solid grounds for believing that a 
miracle had really taken place in this instance, he ex' 
claimed, " Oh, if the Church of Koine thus keenly sifted 



128 



REASONABLE FAITH 



every story of miraculous interposition, there would be 
an end of all the absurd and ridiculous old- woman tales 
of credulous piety." The case, however, he was in- 
formed, did not satisfy those appointed to investigate it, 
and had been rejected, as not proved, by the Congregation 
appointed to sit in judgment on the evidence. 

Of course it will be said that this is a pure invention ; 
but it is so easy for any scholar to consult the work of 
Benedict XIV., u De Canonizatione" which lays down 
the rules to be strictly followed in these investigations, 
that I cannot help feeling amazed and shocked at the 
want of candor and simple justice which educated Prot- 
estants, almost without exception, display on this subject. 

When it is considered, however, that if one miracle is 
satisfactorily proved, the whole accumulation of learned 
and ingenious arguments against the possibility of mir- 
acles, and the mistake of the Church in encouraging 
belief in such special manifestations of a loving and ever- 
watchful Providence, breaks down altogether ; and that 
it is an axiom in sound reasoning, " Ab actu ad posse valet 
consecutio" — or that we can reason fairly from a fact to 
the possibility of the same, — we need not wonder that they 
who have obstinately made up their minds to scout the 
bare idea of a miracle cannot be moved beyond the 
magic circle within which they have firmly intrenched 
themselves. 

It is as though they had yielded to silly fears, and, like 
the wizards and magicians of old times, shut themselves 
in by barriers that bid defiance to every assault of the 
supernatural. 

There is an extreme even in shrewd matter-of-fact 
sagacity. A man may overreach himself by aiming at 
superhuman cunning, and prove himself an ass by miss- 



AND NON-CATHOLIC CREDULITY. 129 



ing splendid opportunities. How often is the wisdom of 
this world outdone by simple, humble, and childlike 
Faith that, springing from the healthy growth of infalli- 
ble certainty, secures for itself a peace of mind which 
"surpasseth all understanding" ! 

While the proud who despise this teaching are left to 
wander hopelessly amid the mazes and maddening con- 
fusion of doubt and perplexity, simple souls step in and 
win the great gift of Divine Faith, the jewel beyond all 
price. 

In the next chapter, I mean to pursue this subject far- 
ther, and to discuss calmly, and I hope without boring 
my readers, a branch of it, which, to my mind, is the 
great and practical question affecting religious belief at 
the present day, — whether it is more reasonable to accept 
Kevelation on Catholic principles, involving, as it does, 
"the obedience of Faith" and what the world calls 
"foolishness," or to condemn one's self to restless and 
never-ending doubt, and its natural result, hopeless, dark, 
and despairing unbelief. 



130 



"THE pride of life." 



CHAPTER VI. 



"The Pride of Life. 



N the beautiful story of Fabiola there is a most touch- 



ing description of the parting scene between the 
noble Roman lady and St. Agnes. The youthful virgin, 
soon to add the crown of martyrdom to the robe of an- 
gelical purity, wins a promise from her cousin that she 
will seek instruction in the doctrines of Christianity. 
She tells Fabiola that a cloud of gloomy shadow, the 
shade of death, hangs over all her splendid gifts of intel- 
lect, and refined culture, and high moral feeling ; and that 
this cloud can be effaced only by the water of Baptism. 
The reply of Fabiola contains in itself the point on which 
will turn this chapter — " And shall I lose all that you 
have just prized in me ?" 

This is to my mind the sum and substance of the in- 
surmountable difficulty which shuts out so many pure 
and gifted souls from the one true fold. 

"What!" exclaims the noble-minded unbeliever in 
anything but his own cherished creations of a beautiful 
ideal, the elaboration perhaps of years of patient study 
and profound reflection, " must I abandon this best part 
of myself, which has sustained me during so many trials 
and temptations, and kept before me the dignity of a ra- 
tional being framed, as Christians say, according to the 
Divine image, and bow down before puerilities and trifles 
that shock my reason ?" " Must I," says the Christian 
who trusts in his own private judgment, " become again a 




"the pride of life." 



131 



child, and lisp, in language that I cannot understand, the 
accents of a mystic worship that seems to mock my intel- 
ligence, and share in rites that can gratify only the 
superstitious cravings of an ignorant herd ? Never : 
better far the gloom and darkness and blank desolation 
of even total destruction after death, or the possible ter- 
rors of eternal woe, than bind myself irrevocably to a 
creed which forbids the exercise of free-thought, and 
overwhelms every aspiration towards the bright gleams 
that have won my admiration and enthralled my exist- 
ence." 

This is, I must confess, a sore temptation. And how I 
shall help the brave and good to overcome it, seems to me 
an undertaking beyond my feeble powers. I think of the 
primeval trial of our race, and the whisperings of the 
astute enemy who knows our weakness, and I seem to 
shrink within myself as I hear the mocking cry, "Ye 
shall be as gods," and behold the spirit of our first 
father, even when the breath of God sent the blood 
sparkling through his veins, and our first mother fresh- 
moulded by the same G-od, sinking under the delirium- 
exciting charm. God help us ! How can we hope, when 
Grace is undesired, and the prayer that might obtain it 
regarded as something degrading, to cope with this fasci- 
nation ? 

Yet still I hope against hope, and believe that, with the 
Divine assistance, Faith can present a glimpse at least of 
saving truth, and point the way at any rate to those who 
really desire " to hear the Word of God and keep it." 

I know that there are many who value their eternal 
salvation above all earthly treasures ; and who, though 
not Catholics in their external profession, set their hearts 
earnestly on the goal which the Saints of the Church kept 



132 



"the pride of life." 



ever before their eyes. They would, I believe, die as 
willingly as the saintly Agnes, to win the crown of a 
glorious immortality : and it may be that, in their soul- 
harrowing doubts and perplexities, they will catch at this 
weak raft which I venture to cast from my mind on the 
surging and angry waters of distracting unbelief. God 
is good, and patient, and long-suffering, and He, I know, 
will bless every effort, no matter how apparently hope- 
less, that is directed to the salvation of souls purchased 
by the precious blood of our Divine Eedeemer. 

I may as well meet at once the difficulty plainly that 
stares me in the face. Generous and exalted souls, who 
have no real knowledge of Catholic doctrine, but have 
now and then cast a glance in the direction of Catholic 
morality, as it has been revealed to them in the lives and 
habits of Catholic friends, say within themselves some- 
thing like this : " Here are people whom we esteem and 
love ; they are faithful to their creed and to the prac- 
tices which it enjoins. They would suffer anything, no 
matter how grievous, rather than swerve, by one jot or 
tittle, from the way pointed out to them by their pastors. 
They are superior to human respect, whenever public 
opinion and the views sanctioned by the approval of 
society come in contact with what they believe to be their 
duty. We may smile at their scruples about joining in 
the whirling dance, or sharing in our repasts, when they 
feel they are bound by the laws of fast and abstinence ; 
but they heed us not. They are very strict in attending 
to daily prayer, and the devotions prescribed by their 
Church, and never fail, at appointed times, to go to what 
they call their 6 religious duties,' no matter how broadly 
we may ridicule such starched observance. However we 
may alter our views according to the prevailing taste in 



"the pride of life." 



133 



religious matters, they are always the same. If their 
belief is a superstition, it is a very determined and obsti- 
nate one. What do they mean ? They are not playing 
a part ; it would be absurd to imagine so for a moment. 
They are thoroughly in earnest, whatever this fancy is 
that beguiles them. They do not obtrude on our atten- 
tion the observance and practices of their peculiar faith. 
They are not given to speak of their interior convictions. 
There is, at any rate, no cant or hypocrisy about them. 
What can it be that gives them this settled and deter- 
mined conviction \ While we amuse ourselves with 
watching, and sometimes imitating, the aesthetic religious 
fancies £ of the period,' they are as serious in their own 
settled way as if the glare of the gay world never for a 
moment disturbed their thoughts, or broke in upon their 
day-dreams of God and Heaven. 

" But then they are so childish and silly in their wor- 
ship, bowing down and striking their breasts at the ring- 
ing of a bell ; closing their eyes in rapture, as the officiat- 
ing priest, clad in outlandish garb, swings the censer 
with its perfumed smoke, before something that, in a 
gilded case, he has set up on high after many prostra- 
tions. The music is sometimes very fine, but more fre- 
quently it is harsh and discordant. The altar, where 
these mysterious rites are performed, is often a gem of 
cultivated taste, and looks charming, with its many lights 
and bright flowers ; but occasionally it is hideous in its 
rude plainness, and tawdry decorations of tinsel and gold- 
paper, and such ornaments as children love to heap to- 
gether in their doll-houses or baby-palaces. Whatever 
may be thought of their grand cathedrals, rich in ex- 
quisite carving and painted glass, with their lofty aisles 
and arches, built at so much cost, for no other purpose, 



134 



"the pride of life. : 



it would seem, than to gratify sensuous tastes, and shed a 
glamour of theatrical effect on sights and sounds and 
ceremonies strange and unmeaning — those wretched 
hovels and shapeless barns, where the same pompous 
ritual is feebly imitated till us with loathing and disgust. 
How," they exclaim, "can reasonable people, fairly 
educated, find anything like satisfaction in the mum- 
bling of prayers in Latin, and the nasal chanting of old 
priests, who seem, with much discomfort to themselves, 
to hurry through the wearying and monotonous service ? 
And these never-ending repetitions of Paters and A ves, 
while the hands mechanically turn over the beads of a 
sort of necklace, — was ever anything so ridiculous ? How 
could we ever think for a moment of becoming members 
of a Church that encourages such nonsensical practices % 

" And then the strict obedience, and the humility, as 
they call it, but which we know is more like forgetful- 
ness of self-respect, so much insisted on, — how could we 
possibly bear with such folly ? 

" And then confession of all our secret failings, which 
we would naturally hide from ourselves, — to have to tell a 
sinner like ourselves, all about our petty meannesses, and 
our insincerity, and our contemptible vanity, and our 
affectation, and our bitter jealousy, and hatred, and de- 
termination to mortify and cut to the bone those who 
have wounded our self-love, while we endeaver to deceive 
them with winning smiles and fond expressions of ardent 
friendship! Oh, the overwhelming shame of being 
obliged to disclose all these humiliating weaknesses of 
character, which we so carefully hide in society ! Who 
could endure such a fearful ordeal ? To have the most 
secret recesses of our hearts probed to the very bottom, 
dark things, known only to ourselves and the all-seeing 



"the pride of life." 



135 



eye of God, foul imaginings, depraved longings after 
evil, wilfully entertained, and the like, and our most hid- 
den sins ! Ah, no : ' better bear the ills we have than fly 
to others that we know not of ' or only dimly conjecture. 

" Better bear our anxieties about necessary truth, and 
the one Faith essential for salvation, as best we can, and 
do our utmost to shut out our terrified inward sense 
of responsibility to God and our Saviour, by constant 
dissipation amid the frivolities sanctioned by the world 
around us, than ever become miserably deluded and 
superstitious Papists." 

I think I have not exaggerated by one iota, the great 
temptation of the " pride of life," which binds, with its 
chains of adamant, so many generous and high-minded 
individuals who, in their anxiety about " the one thing 
necessary," sometimes involuntarily turn their eyes to- 
wards the one true Church. 

"ISTo," I fancy I hear them exclaim, "it is preferable 
to nerve ourselves, and look calmly on the awful future, 
than bear the utter renunciation of all that makes life 
dear and charming. And after all, perhaps it is not 
quite so dangerous as conscience tells us, to trifle with 
the Divine appointments : and who knows but we may 
find a plan whereby we can, at the same time, serve a 
merciful God, and gratify our own spirit of independence, 
and those tastes and inclinations which are essential to 
our happiness as human beings ? Surely there must be 
some way by which we can safely put aside this humble 
6 obedience to the Faith,' and this ' foolishness ' of 
Catholic teaching that excites our honest loathing and 
contempt." 

What shall I say to souls thus so sorely tried ? Shall I 
attempt to argue with them, and point out how unreason- 



136 



' < THE PRIDE OF LIFE." 



able and unfounded are their prejudices against Catholic 
doctrine and Catholic practices and worship ? 

I know it would be a vain hope to cast in this way 
even one gleam of light on this dark sea of troubles. Of 
course in picturing to myself these severe temptations to 
proud human nature, which may all be summed up in 
the words " the pride of life," and the mental struggles 
of those who suffer under this most dangerous of all 
earthly temptations that war against the acquisition of 
Life eternal, I do not, for a moment, set before me a class 
of Christians who are altogether spoiled for serious 
thought by inordinate and constant frivolity. The case of 
such as these is, I fear, utterly hopeless. An angel from 
Heaven might perhaps, by a smart brush of his wing, or 
the vivid suggestion of an eternity of misery, startle them 
from their fascination ; but the plain and homely words 
of a minister of the Gospel — "the foolishness of our 
preaching," if it is heeded at all, can only divert such as 
these. 

The worldly-minded Christians whom I am venturing, 
not without great misgivings of the weakness of my 
words, to address, are thus admirably described by the 
great Cardinal, who knows better than any living man, 
how to reach the heart of beings gifted with high intel- 
ligence and strength of character. 

" We find these men," says Cardinal Newman, and of 
course women too are included under the generic name, 
" possessed of many virtues, but proud, bashful, fastidi- 
ous, and reserved. Why is this? It is because they 
think and act as if there were really nothing objective in 
their religion; it is because conscience to them is not the 
word of a law-giver, as it ought to be, but the dictate of 
their own minds and nothing more ; it is because they do 



"the pride of life." 



137 



not look out of themselves, because they do not look 
through and beyond their own minds to their Maker, but 
are engrossed in notions of what is due to themselves, 
to their own dignity, and their own consistency. Their 
conscience has become a mere self-respect. Instead of 
doing one thing and then another, as each is called for in 
faith and obedience, careless of what may be called the 
keeping of deed with deed, and leaving Him who gives 
the command to blend the portions of their conduct into 
a whole, their one object, however unconscious to them- 
selves, is to paint a smooth and perfect surface, and to 
be able to say to themselves that they have done their 
duty. When they do wrong, they feel, not contrition, of 
which God is the object, but remorse and a sense of deg- 
radation. They call themselves fools, not sinners ; they 
are angry and impatient, not humble. They shut them- 
selves up in themselves ; it is misery to them to think or 
to speak of their own feelings ; it is misery to suppose 
that others see them, and their shyness and sensitiveness 
often become morbid. As to confession, which is so 
natural to the Catholic, to them it is impossible ; unless 
indeed in cases where they have been guilty, an apology 
is due to their own character, is expected of them, and 
will be satisfactory to look back upon. They are victims 
of an intense self -contemplation." ("Idea of a Univer- 
sity," page 191.) 

!Nb wonder that such as these regard Catholic practices 
and worship as I have described above. They do not 
endeavor to find out the manner in which it pleases God 
that He would be worshipped and honored by His creat- 
ures. They have their own views of the propriety or 
fitness of a becoming form of service. If they had their 
own way, they would prescribe to the clergyman the 



138 



"the pride op life." 



style of reading that suited them, the very tone and va- 
ried modulations which vibrated soothingly or agreeably 
with chords in their own interior consciousness. 

Like the celebrated American preacher, the Rev. Henry 
Ward Beecher, they would gush in admiration of the 
deep-toned Amen, which, it appears, forms in his aesthetic 
view, the main charm of the Anglican service, provided it 
evoked a thrill within them in unison with the prolonged 
cadence of this beautiful termination of the chanted 
prayer. This is " the correct thing," provided always it 
is sustained by a ritual in harmony with their percep- 
tions of the most becoming form of Church service. 
Why should they trouble themselves as to what suited 
the wants of the poor and the uneducated and simple, 
any more than as to what form of public worship was in 
use in primitive times, and sanctioned by the practice of 
Apostolic men instructed in this important matter by the 
Apostles themselves? Their "set" have decided that 
this old-fashioned Catholic Eitual is puerile and silly, and 
fit only for children. But these strong-minded charac- 
ters won't accept even the suggestions of their friends on 
the point, unless it perfectly falls in with their own judg- 
ment, and is absolutely free from what they consider out 
of taste or jarring with their sensibilities. 

This can hardly be called a large-minded view of the 
fitness of things ; and perhaps the sketch given by the 
Cardinal may help those who know scarcely anything of 
the object of Catholic worship, to see that it looks very 
like subjective conceit of the very narrowest charac- 
ter, to make up their minds, that they could never bear 
the idea of joining in a worship which seems to them, 
without knowing much about it, so ridiculous and con- 
temptible. 



THE PRIDE OF LIFE." 



139 



I alluded more particularly to one form of our wor- 
ship, when I was pointing out the object of these high- 
handed decisions of private judgment. How few Prot- 
estants understand what is meant by Benediction of the 
Blessed Sacrament ! 

Once this is properly understood, how poor and 
wretched and contemptible are the objections to the 
mode in which the Ritual of the Church is carried out ! 
It is not the grandeur of the church, or the pealing or- 
gan, or the lights and flowers, that form the attraction 
which draws Catholics to assist at this most sacred rite, 
and makes their hearts overflow with lively sentiments 
of peace and holy joy. 

It is because the Incarnate Saviour is present, aud be- 
cause the visible sign of the Son of Man is seated upon 
His throne in the midst of His people. It is because the 
Emmanuel gives all who are present His solemn bene- 
diction. It is because the eye of Faith beholds Him, as 
when He lifted up His hands over the children, or when 
He blessed His chosen ones upon Mount Olivet. Again, 
to use the words of Cardinal Newman, " It is a full ac- 
complishment of what the priest invoked upon the 
Israelites : 4 The Lord bless thee and keep thee ; the 
Lord show His face to thee, and have mercy on thee ; 
the Lord turn His countenance to thee, and give thee 
peace.' Can there be a more touching rite, even in the 
judgment of those who do not believe in it ? How many 
a man, not a Catholic, is moved on seeing it to say, £ Oh, 
that I did but believe it ! ' when he sees the priest take 
up the Fount of Mercy, and the people bent low in ado- 
ration! It is one of the most beautiful, natural, and 
soothing actions of the Church." (" Present Position of 
Catholics," p. 255.) 



140 



"the pride of life." 



How weak and silly seem these objections of the 
" pride of life" when confronted with the simple maj- 
esty of truth! The grand church and its magnificent 
decorations, are after all only mere accessories to raise the 
soul above the things of earth, and help it to realize the 
immensity of the Divine condescension. The same rite 
performed, in all its essential points, at the humblest altar 
in the world, even in the Kaffir hut, where I have at times 
offered up the Most Holy Sacrifice, tells the tale of love in 
another way that speaks as eloquently to simple Faith. 

In the midst of absolute desolation, as regards fitting 
ornaments and ceremonial, the pious soul is helped to 
picture to itself the stable and the crib, and in company 
with Mary and Joseph, and the humble shepherds, to bow 
down and adore. 

The grand church and the music and the many lights 
and garlands of flowers mark our gratitude for God's 
greatest gift to man ; and the humble grot, or the 
wretched hovel, or the shapeless barn, appeal in their 
rude simplicity, to souls enabled by Faith to realize to 
themselves the wonderful condescension of Almighty 
love. 

What becomes in this view of the " doll- house and the 
frippery of tinsel and childish adornment," so haughtily 
urged against Catholic worship ? Verily, I believe that 
souls capable of appreciating anything really great and 
sublime in this world must feel to the quick, the touch- 
ing words of the Saviour, once addressed by Him to 
supercilious criticism of this kind, — " Out of the mouths 
of infants and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise" 
(Matt. xxi. 16), — and hang their heads in shame and con- 
fusion. 

I mentioned Confession as another of the bugbears that 



"the pride oe life." 



141 



affright the tender susceptibilities of the " pride of lif e." 
Hear what the Cardinal, whose words I love to quote, 
says upon the subject : 

" How many souls in distress, anxiety, or loneliness, 
whose one need is to find a being to whom they can pour 
out their feelings unheard by the world ? Tell them out 
they must ; they cannot tell them out to those whom they 
see every hour. They want to tell them, and not to tell 
them ; and they want to tell them out, yet be as if they 
be not told ; they wish to tell them to one who is strong 
enough to bear them, yet not too strong to despise them ; 
they wish to tell them to one who can at once advise and 
can sympathize with them ; they wish to relieve themselves 
of a load, to gain a solace, to receive the assurance that there 
is one who thinks of them, and one to whom in thought 
they can recur, to whom they can betake themselves, if 
necessary, from time to time, while they are in the world. 
How many a Protestant's heart would leap at the news of 
such a benefit, putting aside all distinct ideas of a sacra- 
mental ordinance, or of a grant of pardon, and the con- 
veyance of grace! If there is a heavenly idea in the 
Catholic Church, looking at it simply as an idea, surely, 
next after the Blessed Sacrament, Confession is such. 
Oh, what a soothing charm is there, which the world can 
neither give nor take away ! Oh, what a piercing, heart- 
subduing tranquillity, provoking tears of joy, is poured 
almost substantially and physically upon the soul, the oil 
of gladness, as Scripture calls it, when the penitent at 
length rises, his God reconciled to him, his sins rolled 
away forever ! This is confession as it is in fact." (" Pres- 
ent Position of Catholics," p. 351.) 

I would say a few words about that devotion of the 
Rosary, or the " Beads," which to Protestants seems one 



142 



"the pride of life." 



of the most extraordinary and extravagantly stupid devo- 
tions in use in the Catholic Church. It is only they who 
know nothing whatever about it that form this low esti- 
mate of its true character. They generally regard it as a 
pious jargon, practised only by the most ignorant Catho- 
lics — something on a par with the windmill prayers of the 
low Chinese. Perhaps it is not generally known that the 
lower orders of the interior of the " Flowery Land " attach 
slips of paper containing the words of a prayer to the 
arms of a toy windmill, which, by turning a handle, are 
made to revolve with great rapidity. This fanciful idea 
of the Chinese, which is improved upon by the plan of a 
shrewd Yankee, seems almost too ridiculous to be men- 
tioned here, or the improvement either. But such things 
serve to bring out the truth by contrast. It is said that 
the Yankee, having heard that the Lord's Prayer was the 
most admirable that could be conceived, thought how it 
might be most easily adapted to his use. He had a copy 
of the prayer attached to his bed-head, and pointing to it 
morning and at night, said, " Lord, these are my senti- 
ments." Almost as ludicrous are the notions of the Beads 
formed by most of our separated brethren. Probably 
the intelligent Protestant, who has directed his attention 
to this devotion, and has heard it and seen it practised, 
considers that the faster the Paters and Aves are recited, 
the greater is the efficacy attached by superstitious Papists 
to the performance. 

But the fact is that this form of prayer is the most 
generally practised by Catholics of high and low degree. 
The greatest dignitaries in the Catholic Church make a 
practice of saying the Posary on the beads every day. It 
is the ordinary devotion of spare time, and the one which, 
after the light is extinguished at bedtime, soothes the soul 



" THE PRIDE OF LIFE." 



143 



to tranquil rest. It embodies in itself the most perfect 
forms of mental and vocal prayer, bringing vividly before 
the mind the chief mysteries in the life and passion and 
glory of our Divine Saviour, and of His blessed mother, 
while the lips are engaged in repeating the prayer which 
our Divine Lord taught us, and saluting with the angel 
Gabriel and St. Elizabeth the Holy Virgin, in connection 
with the great mystery of the Incarnation. Protestants 
who became Catholics have assured me that, though they 
constantly read a chapter in the New Testament, from 
their earliest capacity to read, they never so realized to 
themselves the infinite goodness of our Divine Saviour as 
when they had learned to repeat the Rosary. The mind is 
fixed on some striking event in the life of our Lord on 
earth, or on the glorious mysteries of His Resurrection 
and Ascension, and the joyful meeting of the Blessed 
Mother and Son in Heaven, till they seem in company 
of the Holy Family, seeing with the eyes of Mary and 
Joseph the realities of these mysteries, surrounded by the 
angels, to repeat with them their acts of praise and 
thanksgiving for all God's gracious mercies. As Car- 
dinal Wiseman so beautifully expresses it, " Many a poor 
beadsman or woman, who never received the most rudi- 
mentary education, will stand higher in Heaven and 
nearer to the throne of God, than the most learned 
Christian scholars, by the habit of pious meditation 
acquired in this simple devotion." 

I remember well, in college, the surprise and admira- 
tion excited in one of the Honorable Yisitors, whose at- 
tention was attracted by an immense pile of rosaries, left 
by the students near the altar of the college chapel, to be 
blessed. He asked for what purpose they were meant, 
and the senior Dean who accompanied the distinguished 



144 



"the pride of life. 



visitor, briefly told him how the anchorets in the desert, 
in early Christian times, who had no books, or perhaps 
could not read the Divine Office, including the psalter 
with its one hundred and fifty psalms, contrived, by 
means of berries or little stones strung on a cord, to re- 
peat with the regularity of the priests and ecclesiastics 
the prayers which they knew by heart, according so 
many paters and aves to every psalm, while their minds 
were fixed on the most striking events in the history of 
the Kedeemer. He further explained how this devotion 
was modelled into its present form by St. Dominic, that 
it naturally became the prayer of the simple and the un- 
learned, and that the blessings bestowed on them gradu- 
ally attracted the attention of their more learned brethren, 
and caused it to be adopted by all good Catholics. The 
gentleman who asked for the information was a Protes- 
tant, who never before had seen a Beads, or " the thing 
like a necklace yet he could scarcely find words to ex- 
press his respect and reverence for the ingenious means 
devised by Catholic instincts, and approved of by the 
Church, to enable the humblest of her children to join 
with the most gifted in praising and honoring Cod. 

Those Catholics who sometimes have the privilege of 
saying the Rosary with the pious nuns, and the children 
who attend their schools, know well how irresistibly they 
are borne upwards to the mercy-seat, by the incessant 
peals of praise and adoration, which burst forth around 
them during the recitation of the Rosary in the convent 
chapel. 

These are some of the practices which evoke the scorn 
and contempt of Protestants, even of those who consider 
themselves most liberal in their views of Catholicity, and 
who are frightened from becoming members of the one 



"the pride of life." 



145 



true Fold, by what they so rashly call these evidences of 
rank superstition and revolting childishness. God help 
them ! They know not what they say. It would be 
something more akin to reasonable liberality if, like the 
visitor of the college, who was a distinguished chief - 
justice of Her Majesty's courts in Ireland, they sought 
instruction before they attempted to pass judgment. 

I commenced this chapter with an extract from Fabiola. 
The glances at well-remembered passages in that exquis- 
itely beautiful story which I caught as I searched for the 
passage I required, have so filled my mind, and they seem 
so connected with my subject, that I will close it with a 
few which appear to me the most charming of all. 

The Pagan lady, who had devoted her splendid abilities 
to the study of everything beautiful in Pagan philosophy, 
is learning Christianity from the lips of her slave Syra. 
What a lesson for proud j^rivate judgment and subjective 
views of the Gospel is furnished in the picture so admira- 
bly drawn by the polished scholar, Cardinal Wiseman ! 

I scarcely know what gems to select from the profusion 
set before me. But this one bearing on the Incarnation 
seems to me most deserving of the consideration of the 
class to which this chapter is specially directed. 

Syra had been explaining the principal mysteries of 
Catholic teaching, during which " Philosophy had given 
place to Religion, captiousness to docility, incredulity to 
Faith." 

But now a sadness seemed to have come over Fabiola's 
heart. Syra read it in her looks, and asked her its cause. 

" I hardly dare tell you," she replied ; " but all that you 
have related to me is so beautiful, so divine, that it seems 
to me necessarily to end here. £ The Word ' (what a 
noble name !), that is the expression of God's love, the 



146 



"the pride of life." 



externation of His wisdom, the evidence of His power, the 
very breath of His life-giving life, which is Himself, be- 
cometh flesh. "Who shall furnish it to Him 1 Shall He 
take up the cast-up slough of a tainted humanity, or shall 
a new manhood be created for Him f Shall He take His 
place in a double genealogy, receiving thus into Himself 
a twofold tide of corruption ; and shall there be any one 
on earth daring and hi^h enough to call himself His 
Father?" 

" No," softly whispered Syra ; " but there shall be one 
holy enough and humble enough to be worthy to call her- 
self His mother !" 

"And who was she f" asked Fabiola with great rever- 
ence. 

" One whose very name is blessed by every one that 
truly loves her Son. Mary is the name by which you will 
know her. Well, you may suppose, was she prepared for 
such high destiny by holiness and virtue : not as cleansed, 
but as ever clean ; not as purified, but as always pure ; 
not freed, but exempted from sin. The tide of which 
yon spoke found before her the dam of an eternal decree, 
which could not brook that the holiness of God should 
mingle what it could only redeem by keeping extraneous 
to itself." 

There is something here which might be seriously con- 
sidered with profit by those who, without any fixed Kule 
of Faith on the mystery of the Incarnation, presumed to 
dictate to the Church of God, inspired by the Holy 
Ghost, the limits of her teaching on this fundamental 
mystery of Christian truth. 

When I hear or read the stnpid things which are said 
or written about the Immaculate Conception, and mark 
the complete misunderstanding of the doctrine, and the 



" THE PRIDE OF LIFE." 



147 



charge brought against the Church of corrupting the 
" Faith once delivered to the saints," or of teaching new 
doctrine opposed to its primary principles, I cannot help 
thinking how much more wise it would be for our dog- 
matic critics to study at least the Catechism, or some book 
of rudimentary instruction on Catholic belief, before they 
attempted to pose as learned professors in theology. 

I read in a colonial newspaper a few weeks ago, at the 
close of a friendly review of the introduction to " Catho- 
lic Christianity and Modern Unbelief," the extraordinary 
observation, that if the Catholic Church went on adding 
new and strange dogmas to its creed, it would end in 
completely subverting the original Deposit of revealed 
truth. 

Of course the editor never heard of Development, or he 
could not have been betrayed into so palpable a blunder. 
The same senseless remark might have been made by an 
Arian heretic when the Council of Nice developed the 
truth of the Divinity of Jesus Christ. 

The Catholic Church was not founded by Jesus Christ, 
merely to record the truths contained in the Apostles' 
Creed, but according to the wants of the faithful, disturbed 
by the assaults of daring heresy, 'to explain and define 
them. When it is shown that a new definition, or a more 
ample unfolding of the truth committed to her charge, 
has contradicted or denied a dogma accepted as Eevelation 
from the beginning, it will be time to raise a question of 
this kind. 

In every age of the existence of the Church, heresy or 
obstinate error has required not only its condemnation by 
the lips of inspired and infallible truth, but such an expo- 
sition of the dogma controverted, or attempted to be cor- 
rupted, as would make it plain and unmistakable to the 



148 



"the pride of life." 



meanest capacity of all who, in accordance with the ap- 
pointment of Christ, looked np to the Chnrch for guid- 
ance and instruction. 

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception, as ex- 
plained in the passage from Fabiola, is only a clearer and 
more distinct declaration of the fact that the All-Holy 
Word, the only Son of God, " was made flesh, and dwelt 
amongst us." 

There is another passage from this charming book, with 
which I will conclude this chapter. It is so suggestive of 
the grand plan of Redemption as seen by Faith, and of 
the means whereby the atonement is brought within our 
individual reach, that I can find no better introduction to 
the subject of the next chapter, which will be devoted to 
vindicate the cardinal virtue, which is " the root of Justi- 
fication," the ground of our hope, and the source of all 
Christian love. 

Fabiola says to her servant, " Dare any one address by 
worship, this Being whom you have described to me ? 
Is He not too great, too lofty, too distant for this ?" 

"Oh no ; far from it, noble lady," answered Syra. 
" He is not distant from any of us ; for as much as the 
light of the sun, so in the very splendor of His might, 
His kindness, and His wisdom, we live and move and have 
our being. Hence one may address Him, not as far 
off, but as around us and within us, while we are in Him ; 
and He hears us not with ears, but our words drop at 
once into His very bosom, and the desires of our hearts 
pass directly into the Divine abyss of His." 

" But," pursued Fabiola, somewhat timidly, " is there 
no great act of acknowledgment, such as sacrifice is sup- 
posed to be, whereby He may be formally recognized and 
adored ?" 



"the pride of life." 



149 



And when Syra had replied that there was snch a rite, 
and explained that the Yictim should be worthy of the 
Deity, that it should be spotless in purity, matchless in 
greatness, unbounded in acceptableness, she announced 
to the awed and amazed pagan lady, trembling with the 
first inspirations of revealed truth, " That Yictim is 
Himself " we behold in the mystery involved in these 
words that consummation of Divine wisdom, almighty 
power, and infinite love which raises every ceremony in 
the worship of the Catholic Church as high above the 
crude speculations of private judgment, and rude and 
ignorant human criticism, as Heaven is above this lowly 
earth. 



150 



FAITH. 



CHAPTER VII. 
Faith. 

Grahamstown, many years ago, there was a wild 
fellow, who, whenever he was in his cups, loved " to 
argne controversy," as he called it, and who was seldom 
or never posed for an answer, when hard pressed by an 
opponent. On one occasion he was maintaining against 
all-comers in the tap-room, that he, an Irishman and a 
Catholic, held the one true faith ; and when it was put 
to him that other God-fearing Christians who worshipped 
according to the lights of their individual conscience 
might have a certain share in the cardinal virtue, he felt 
called upon to settle the argument with a home thrust. 

" Have you then Faith ?" said he to his Wesleyan 
antagonist. 

" Yes," meekly replied the other, " I feel that I have 
abundant and life-giving faith." 

" Can you move mountains ? Do that, and I will be- 
lieve you." 

~No doubt Pat congratulated himself on his victory, 
and enjoyed a triumph in the approving laughter of his 
friends. Absurd as this style of reasoning is, and extra- 
vagant as is the notion of Faith which flashed on the 
mother-wit of my excited countryman, I have met with 
views of Faith amongst non-Catholics quite on a par with 
this. 

When feeling and sentiment are the only guide, it 
would be difficult to fix any limit to the wild fancies of 



FAITH. 



151 



the imagination, as it speculates about Faith. In the 
chapter on the Vagaries of Private Judgment there are 
many illustrations of my meaning. Now that I purpose 
to lay before my readers what is meant by reasonable 
Faith, as understood and explained by the Catholic 
Church, it will not be expected that I should dwell even 
momentarily on mere distortions of this Divine virtue. 

The simplest notion that I can give of Faith, as we 
Catholics comprehend it, is that it means unbounded 
trust and imdoubting confidence in the Divine teaching. 
We honor God by believing firmly everything He tells 
us by the voice of His living and speaking Church. 

"When Christians who are not Catholics sueer at our 
credulity, and say that we are ready to believe anything, 
no matter how incredible, they are only characterizing 
our Faith by its most notable and essential qualities. 
Certainly a well-instructed and devout Catholic will be- 
lieve with all his heart and soul whatever God is pleased 
to tell him about His Divine nature or about the mys- 
teries of Religion. He knows intuitively that he can- 
not take into his finite mind the Infinite; that there 
must of necessity be extraordinary and incomprehensible 
things in all that concerns the great God and His re- 
lations with created beings ; and because he is certain that 
God cannot deceive him, and because he hopes that a 
day will come when he shall see God face to face, and in 
that beatific vision find his happiness for evermore, he 
enjoys, even here below, a positive delight in manifesting 
this unbounded confidence in God's word. He is certain, 
too, that, in proportion to his unhesitating belief, he is 
honoring and pleasing God. 

In fact there cannot be imagined a nobler offering, or 
one more worthy of a child of God, than that which is 



152 



FAITH. 



presented to our Heavenly Father by an act of entire 
and unbounded Faith. 

As in His communications to us, through the inspired 
prophets and sacred writers, God is pleased to draw us 
towards Himself by language suited to our capacities of 
feeling ; as He speaks of His love for us being like that 
of a mother for her child, and tells us that He requires 
our hearts, and is jealous of our love, we may be allowed 
to picture to ourselves " the joy of the Lord," as, looking 
up to Him revealed to us in the person of His Son, we say, 
with all the ardor of our being, " We believe, O Lord ! 
Help our unbelief." " Thou hast the words of eternal 
life." 

There can be no purer pleasure in this world than that 
enjoyed by a good father, who, gazing on the upturned 
and reverent face of the child he loves, hears the first 
questions of budding reason, and marks the rapt at- 
tention with which his lessons are received. And as this 
father is honored by the implicit trust and the unwaver- 
ing confidence with which his every word is received by 
the child nestling in his bosom, as he feels in this touch- 
ing homage a delight beyond any other joy this world 
can give, may not we, " taught," as we are, " of God," 
believe that by the homage of our Faith, we are render- 
ing ourselves " fit for the kingdom of heaven" 1 

Such is the simplest idea I can give of Faith ; and 
Faith like this is evidently impossible outside the Catho- 
lic Church. If we cannot know with certainty what God 
has taught, if there is no living Voice to tell us infallibly 
His blessed will, how is Faith like this possible ? 

If the words of life must first be humanized, adapted 
by human formularies to our view of things, stripped by 
human discernment and human wisdom of their heavenly 



FAITH. 



153 



and mysterious import, carefully weighed in the balance 
of reason, and passed through the crucible of private 
judgment, before we venture to receive them, surely it 
does not require any lengthened proof to show that, in 
this way, it is impossible to honor God by perfect Faith. 

We may indeed, by this course, honor our own pride 
and humor our sensibilities ; but there is an icy barrier 
between us and our Father that chills anything like that 
tender intercourse, the sweet vision of which is vouch- 
safed to us in the inspired Scriptures. 

I do not in the least mean to deny, that there may be a 
sort of reverent and trusting Faith in Christians who are 
not members of the one fold. Even by the light of 
natural reason, men may believe in the existence of God 
and His perfections, and the immortality of the soul, and 
their own moral responsibility. Nay, more : they may 
positively reject Catholic doctrine as a whole, and yet 
believe in certain dogmas with real Faith ; because, as the 
most eminent Catholic theologians teach, the infallible 
authority of the Church does not necessarily enter into 
the essence of an act of Faith. There are other motives 
of credibility, besides the indwelling of the spirit of 
truth, in the Church, that can satisfy thoughtful men of 
the fact of a Divine Revelation. 

The history of Christianity will, in itself, beget this 
confidence. But a belief which has no higher ground 
of certainty than the testimony of history sifted and 
tried by critical analysis, is but a poor and timid and 
shrinking Faith, which, when it is tested, soon resolves 
itself into Rationalism. It will hardly, in its acceptance 
of revealed truth, wary and cautious and suspicious as it 
must be, develop that childlike trust which is the special 
privilege of Catholic Faith. 



154 



FAITH. 



It is not that the non-Catholic Christian would not be- 
lieve anything which he considers the God of truth an- 
nounces to him ; but the real fact is, that without an 
infallible, living, and speaking guide to assure him that 
God has spoken, and to explain to him the meaning of 
the Divine message, he is cut off from this charming 
intercourse with God which constitutes the real happi- 
ness of a good Christian. 

I would not, without grave necessity, say one word that 
might agitate and ruffle that feeble spark of Faith, which 
is so carefully sheltered and protected by pious sentiment, 
as to afford some comfort and security and peace to the 
weary spirit, tired of the world and of its vanities, and 
longing to be at rest in the bosom of God. 

But the days in which we live are stormy and tempes- 
tuous in all that regards religion ; and a sudden blast of 
impiety coming from a point where it is least expected, 
or perhaps the insidious whisper of a trusted friend, may 
pierce at any moment the weak barrier wherein weak, 
timid Faith lies hid, and extinguish it forever. 

A young man told me, not long ago, that in the course 
of a conversation with an old friend of the family, — one 
of much worldly learning and experience, whom he had 
been taught in childhood to look up to with reverence, 
— he happened to point out the manifest contradiction 
between some new geological theory and the inspired 
words of Genesis. " What !" suddenly exclaimed his 
venerable friend, — who, by the way, had been once a Bible 
Christian of remarkable earnestness, — " and is it possible 
that you, after a good education and a fair knowledge of 
the world, can believe in that antiquated rubbish V 9 

I was not suprised that so rude a blast had seriously 
imperilled even Catholic Faith, tried as it then was by 



FAITH. 



155 



the temptations of youth, and the charms of a sensuous 
world. 

!Nb ; I firmly believe that the evil days are at hand 
when, outside the Catholic Church, there will exist no 
longer a vigorous and healthy, even fragmentary Chris- 
tian Faith, which might shut out these pestiferous blasts 
of proud and angry unbelief. The time is almost come 
when a sickly emotional piety, ever craving with un- 
healthy appetite some brief satisfaction in high- wrought 
feeling, or the stimulants of new forms of religious 
worship, or sleeping in a fancied security and peace, will 
render rash and inconsiderate youth exposed to that fatal 
lethargy which will be broken only by the dread sum- 
mons to Judgment. 

Hence I believe, with all my soul, that it is a matter of 
the utmost importance for all Christians v ' to prove them- 
selves," and satisfy their consciences on the grounds of 
the Faith that is in them. 

Rationalism and free-thought do not mince matters. 
They who regard reason, unaided by any light from 
Heaven, as the ultima ratio, which is bound to test all 
theories and beliefs, will not be slow in rudely blighting 
the religious opinions of their friends. And if there is 
no logical basis for Faith, even the most ardent and glow- 
ing belief will be robbed of its vitality and completely 
extinguished by the cold blasts of sneering unbelief. 
Now that reverence for the written Word of God is 
suffering from the natural consequences of the promiscu- 
ous scattering of the sacred book in millions of copies, 
and that the whole New Testament may be purchased for 
a few pence, — as well by the profane as by those who have 
been trained to regard it with a sort of superstitious rev- 
erence, — it is beyond the power of simple emotional piety 



156 



FAITH. 



to meet the subtle questions of vulgar scepticism, or to 
explain the nature and extent of that inspiration which 
causes the Bible to be so dearly prized by all earnest 
Christians. 

Time was, and not so long ago, when the taint of criti- 
cising unbelief had not reached the Methodist body ; but 
hear what the Sun of New York, a non- Catholic news- 
paper, quoted in the Tablet of June 21, 1884, says with 
regard to those earnest believers : 

"Religious scepticism is also appearing among the 
Methodists, and weakening the force of the body which of 
old knew only religious faith and zeal. Dr. Curry, their 
chief scholar, confesses that he has come to the conclu- 
sion that many of the Bible stories are only old woman's 
tales; and that the ancient veneration for the Scriptures, 
as the Word of God, must slowly disappear." 

Either there is some sustaining principle in non-Catho- 
lic belief, or there is not ; and I mean by a sustaining 
principle, one that mil stand the test of constant assault, 
one that does not consist in mere pious verbiage, one that 
has, in its core, at least something that ordinary intelli- 
gence can grasp and hold. If there is no such real basis 
for belief, then the sooner good and piously disposed 
people are told the truth the better, — that their faith is 
mere human opinion, and nothing more. 

If it is still maintained that private judgment, enlight- 
ened by the spirit of truth, is the safe and unerring 
foundation for individual faith, then let it be clearly 
shown, how such a position is reconcilable with the per- 
petual vagaries of this private judgment. 

There is not one of the 183 jarring sects which rest on 
this principle, in the United Kingdom, that cannot point 
to its honest votaries, who sturdily profess to hold to 



FAITH. 



157 



their religious convictions. They manifestly cannot all 
be led by the one spirit of truth. 

Ingenious sophists have undertaken to prove that black 
is white, and white is black ; and though their subtle 
reasoning might confuse for a moment a man of solid 
sense, every one knows that such pretended logic is ab- 
surd on the very face of it. 

Is it less absurd to maintain that the one, undivided 
and indivisible truth can be the origin of beliefs as dif- 
ferent from each other as white is from black? There 
is then no fixed principle in non-Catholic belief that can 
be relied on; and all attempts at inventing one, must, 
from the very nature of the case, give way before the 
reckless assaults of blataut aud irrepressible infidelity. 

If men will persist in claiming for themselves the right 
of private judgment, they cannot possibly have a sound 
principle to fall back upon, when they are driven from 
the position of feeble sentimentalism by the persistent 
assaults of vulgar unbelief. 

A Bradlaugh or an Ingersoll, or any one of the crew 
whose bold assertions cause men to shudder who retain 
one atom of reverent Faith, must carry all before him. 
And the reason is plain and obvious to the meanest 
capacity. Rationalism is the ultimate judge of the con- 
troversy on both sides. The only difference is that one 
party, the Free-thinkers, boldly and openly maintain 
the indisputable rights of this supreme judge, while the 
other shelters its pretensions to Divine light under the 
cover of human formularies and the shadow of great 
names. 

But the " magni nominis urrihra" the shadow of a ven- 
erated name, is soon dissipated by the untoned and fierce 
blaze of the light which has called it into existence. 



158 



FAITH. 



There is no attempt to invoke a Divine authority ; such 
an attempt would recoil on the heads of those who would 
rashly venture to make it. If it is found by sad experi- 
ence, and the incessant conflict of opinion, that such an 
authority is essential to the maintenance of revealed 
truth, then it is obvious that some clearly defined plan 
must have been laid down by Him who is " the Way, 
the Truth, and the Life ;" and this being so, how fearful is 
the responsibility of those who, under pretence of re- 
forming the plan of the Divine Founder of Christianity, 
attempted, behemoth-like, " to upheave its vastness " ! 

This argument scarcely requires an illustration or fur- 
ther enlargement. But to make the matter clearer, I 
borrow one from the work of Cardinal Manning — " Eng- 
land and Christendom" : 

" The commission of the Catholic Church is to make 
disciples of all nations. A disciple recognizes and sub- 
mits to his teacher. The disciple who argues with his 
teacher is a judge, not a learner. To treat with the 
Church of God is to deny its Divine authority ; but its 
Divine authority is a primary article of Revelation, and 
runs through every article of Faith. If a man believe 
the whole Faith, and yet offend in this one point, he is 
incapable of admission to the unity of the Church. He 
who denies one article of Faith, even the least and re- 
motest from the higher, denies the Divine authority of 
all articles of Faith. Even if he do this through invinci- 
ble ignorance, he is in material heresy. If he do it know- 
ingly and deliberately, he is in formal heresy. For in- 
stance, to deny the eternity of punishment is also to 
deny, as an article of Faith, the eternity of bliss ; for 
both rest on the same Revelation, and are delivered by 
the same Divine Yoice. Such a denial rejects the Divine 



FAITH. 



159 



authority, by refusing to believe its word ; and he who 
does so in this, has no warrant to rest in that Divine au- 
thority, even in the articles of Faith which he may still 
believe. He cannot submit to it in one thing, and resist 
it in another, without resisting it as such. If he will not 
believe the eternity of punishment, even upon Divine 
authority, it is evident that it is upon his own opinion of 
intrinsic credibility, and not upon Divine authority, that 
he believes the eternity of bliss." 

The Cardinal, in this passage, is arguing against those 
who affected to treat with the Church of God about con- 
ditions of union. They felt the misery of their position ; 
they saw clearly that every step they made in the direc- 
tion of private judgment was an abyss invoking another 
abyss, deeper and more desolating than the first ; and so 
they wished to treat with the Catholic Church, and to 
dictate to the Spouse of Christ the conditions which they 
hoped would save them from confessing the shame of 
their great error. But it could not be. " The highest 
spiritual authority on earth was compelled to check all 
hope of union between the Anglican and the Catholic 
Church, founded on mutual concessions, reciprocal inter- 
pretations, much more on compromises, or concordats." 

The argument applies with peculiar force to those who 
hate the Catholic Church, and have no thought of com- 
promising with her the claims of private judgment. They 
see clearly that their last appeal is reason, that there can 
be no question of resuscitating that Divine authority, 
against which they impiously rebelled. And they feel 
that, when matters are submitted to reason, there is then 
question, as Dr. Osborne expresses it, " not between hu- 
man opinion and the written Word of God, but between 
human opinion and human formularies," between the 



160 



FAITH. 



judgments of one set of men and another, without the 
most remote possibility of appeal to any judge who, even 
with the semblance of Divine authority, might attempt to 
settle these scandalous dissensions. 

Why should rationalists of the Bradlaugh school sub- 
mit to others who, half-clinging to the fragmentary tra- 
ditions of " the Faith once delivered to the saints," lack 
the boldness of their adversaries, and feebly endeavor to 
concoct new schemes of salvation that may amuse and 
delude for a time their unthinking followers % 

In the Catholic Church, the principle is as clear as the 
noonday sun. The truth of God is the ground of Di- 
vine Faith, and we know the truth revealed by God, not 
the letter only, but its fixed and determined meaning, 
through the voice of the Church, which its Divine Founder 
commands us to hear. 

How the Church addresses us will be seen farther on, 
as I treat of the infallibility. 

There is only one argument against this plain and sim- 
ple principle of Divine authority, and though I have 
treated of it before, yet because it is the popular argu- 
ment, and is always dwelt upon by the adversaries of the 
Catholic Church, I must again notice it. 

To hear the Church, to obey the Church, to bow down 
with unquestioning assent to the decisions of the Church, 
is, it is argued, unmanly and slavish submission. If the 
Church were not vested with Divine authority, I would 
say — Yes. If God our Saviour did not command us to hear 
the teaching body whom He commissioned to preach to 
all nations and to every creature, I should say decidedly — 
Yes : it would be most slavish to hear and obey her voice. 
But it is not slavish to hear and obey the voice of God, 
and to do what God clearly and distinctly orders us to do. 



FAITH. 



161 



As long as these words of the eternal Gospel remain, 
which Christ addressed to the first appointed teachers of 
His Word,—" He that heareth you heareth Me. He that 
despiseth you despiseth Me," — there can be no plea 
founded on human pride or human will that can prevail 
against them. 

If when the great God announced His law amidst the 
thunders and lightning on Sinai, one amongst the awed 
and prostrate multitude had stood up, and, with Satanic 
pride, had said aloud, "J¥on serviam" — " I will not obey," 
— we know well, from the stern rule maintained over the 
Jewish people, how immediate and how terrible would 
have been the punishment of this daring act of rebellion. 

The offence is not less, it is more inexcusable, when 
the Son of God Himself gives lis the example of obedi- 
ence unto death, and putting aside all the terrors of Al- 
mighty majesty, begs us for His sake, and as we value 
our eternal salvation, to " learn of Him to be meek and 
humble of heart," and with the docility of little children, 
to " hear His word and keep it." 

If Christ had not promised the teachers of His law to 
be always with them in the exercise of their office, and 
so to guide their words by the Spirit of truth, that while 
they seemed to speak as weak men, it was in reality this 
Divine Spirit that would speak through their lips, — " For 
it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that 
speaketh in you" (Matt. x. 20), — there might be some 
excuse in questioning their teaching. 

If it could be imagined that the duly appointed teach- 
ers could deceive us, then it would be not only a hardship 
but a degradation of all that is noble in man, that we 
should be obliged to receive as infallible truth, what 
might be absolutely false. 



162 



FAITH. 



But our Divine Lord, by conferring on them, in this 
office of teaching His word, security from error, has con- 
ferred on us a privilege and a liberty from the possibility 
of deception, such as the pagan world never dreamt 
of before His time. By that promise to be always with 
them, and to guide them always in teaching the truth, 
He has made us free from the misery of being crushed 
under the weight of error, that enslaved and bound to 
'earth a pagan world ; and is now, in these evil days, 
thrusting back mankind, which He redeemed with His 
precious blood, into a worse than pagan confusion of 
hopeless dreams and worthless speculations. 

But it will be said, "Have we not a right to use our 
reason and exercise our common-sense in considering the 
dogmas that are proposed for our belief % Nay, is it not 
our duty, as reasonable beings, to weigh them well and 
see that in all things they square with our experience, be- 
fore we give them our assent, and profess to believe 
them?" 

I answer, — Most decidedly we have no such right, nor 
can there be such a duty imagined to exist, once we re- 
ceive these dogmas on Divine authority. If God, by the 
means instituted by His Divine Son, condescends to tell 
us as much as He considers we are fit to bear, about Him- 
self, and the relations He has mercifully appointed be- 
tween Himself and us, Ave should at once, and without 
the least hesitation, yea, rather with the most entire sat- 
isfaction and becoming gratitude, believe firmly every- 
thing so revealed. 

This is to honor God by Faith, to show unbounded 
filial confidence in His teaching ; and the honor and the 
confidence are all the more becoming on our part, when 
the dogmas so proposed transcend every effort of the hu- 



FAITH. 



163 



man mind to comprehend them. This is to believe like 
Abraham, " who against hope believed in hope, — and he 
was not weak in Faith, — in the promise also of God, he 
staggered not by distrust : but was strengthened in Faith, 
giving glory to God. Most fully knowing that whatso- 
ever He had promised, He is able also to perform. And 
therefore it was reputed to him unto justice" (Rom. iv. 
18, 19, et seq.). 

"When we consider the objects of Faith, that its mys- 
teries regard Divine things of the nature of which we 
can, by our unaided knowledge and experience, under- 
stand nothing ; that, after they have been revealed, they 
are mysteries still ; and that, in view of them, we can 
only fittingly exclaim with the Apostle, " Altitudo /" 
" Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge 
of God ! How incomprehensible are His judgments, and 
how unsearchable His ways !" — all vain imaginings must 
cease. 

If we could by any stretch of intellectual power grasp 
the immensity of the truths proposed to us, see and de- 
termine their fitness, and approve of their wisdom by our 
judgment, in what sense would this approval of our 
puny reason honor the All-wise and the Omnipotent ? 

It would, on the contrary, offer an insult to His In- 
finite Majesty, by attempting to drag Him down from 
His high throne above to the lowly level of earth. 

" But what is the use of believing, or professing to 
believe, things which we do not comprehend ? Is it not 
a mere pretence of believing ? And must not the most 
lively demonstrations of Faith in such inconceivable 
things appear a hideous mockery in His sight, Who sees 
how utterly hollow and worthless and unmeaning are 
these expressions of blind belief ?" Ah, no ! Does the 



164 



FAITH. 



loving father read mockery and distrust in the wonder- 
ing eyes of his little child as he vainly tries to satisfy its 
opening curiosity with words that can have no meaning 
to its unpractised ear ? And will he not press the child 
more fondly to his bosom as he notes its feeble efforts to 
lisp the strange sounds, that thus it may win yet another 
caress from the being who, with the mother, is all the 
world to its young mind, the focus and centre of its 
almost adoring love ? 

It is these mysteries, proposed to Faith by Divine au- 
thority, and accepted purely and simply because they 
emanate from lips that never can deceive us, that lift the 
true believer above the shadows and mists and clouds of 
this earthly life, and enable him to breathe the air of 
Heaven, the life-giving and sustaining power of the soul 
while it is confined in its prison-house of clay. These 
truths are the food of Faith — " The substance of things 
hoped for, the conviction of things that appear not" 
(Heb. xi. 1). 

In the next chapter I mean to show that Hope which 
springs from Faith, no more than Faith itself, can be 
derived from the speculations and opinions of private 
judgment. 



HOPE. 



165 



CHAPTEE YIIL 
Hope. 

TT7"HO is not familiar with the old legend of Pandora, 
* * in which the poetic imagination of classic days has 
involved the primeval revelation of the fall of man and 
the promise of a Redeemer? Curiosity tempts "the 
all-gifted," and the fatal box is opened, which is filled 
with the miseries of sin. Hope alone remains to be the 
comfort of a fallen race. However men may try to for- 
got the history of the sin of disobedience, as given by 
the inspired writer, arid amuse themselves in speculating 
on the origin of evil, they all admit, and have in every 
age admitted, that Hope is the stay and comfort of hu- 
manity. 

We trace it even amidst the horrors of the worst 
forms of paganism. The sacrifices of human victims 
were inspired by Hope. There was an undying instinct 
in man, however fallen and degraded, as long as he did 
not abandon himself utterly to brutal passions, that 
something would save him from the fatal consequences 
of his transgressions against the laws of nature and con- 
science ; and under the irrepressible craving of Hope he 
freely gave up to destruction wdiatever was most dear 
and precious in his sight. 

It was only the proud philosophers who, through the 
blindness of their hearts, " having the understanding ob- 
scured with darkness," and alienated from the life of 
God, sunk below the level of human nature in its weak- 



166 



HOPE. 



est forms. Their deplorable perversion was owing to the 
loss of hope. They had so wearied their minds with 
vain speculations and endless discussions, that they de- 
spaired of even a gleam of light to conduct them to a 
better life ; and so, as the Apostle tells ns, they sunk to 
the lowest depths of unnatural depravity — " Who de- 
spairing, have given themselves up to lasciviousness, to 
the working all uncleanness unto covetousness" (Ephes. 
iv. 19). 

There is not, most probably, any fear that the philos- 
ophers of the present day will abandon themselves to 
the excesses indicated by the Apostle. Christianity has 
so leavened society, that, though men should do their 
worst against the teaching of our Divine Lord, they can- 
not purge out that leaven, which, to the consummation of 
the world, will retain its power of stirring up human 
thought and feeling into a mighty ferment against the 
exhibition and public display of pagan enormities. Such 
things may indeed infest the secret dens of infamy, where 
men have been taught by this pseudo-philosophy to 
ignore a Personal God, and to mock the reproaches of 
conscience and the terrors of religion. But the high 
places of the world can know no more these abomina- 
tions. 

If, however, the masses ever bid defiance to "the pow- 
ers that be," it will, I fear, be seen too clearly what is 
meant by society without God. When public writers of 
considerable literary attainments and exalted position 
proclaim, in cheap pamphlets, that our leaders of prog- 
ress surpass our Divine Lord in wisdom, and that the 
scientists of the day are His superiors in intellect, 
thoughtful men must naturally shudder at the portentous 
shadows of coming events. 



HOPE. 



167 



I could scarcely believe my eyes when I read, a few 
weeks ago, in a pamphlet by Edward B. Aveling (D. Sc. 
London, F.L.S., Fellow of University College, London), 
the following passage : " If such characters as these" 
(John Stuart Mill, George Eliot, Professor Huxley) " are 
wrong, who is to be right? Compare them with the 
character of Christ. They are his equals in all things 
save intellect, and there they are immeasurably His supe- 
riors." (" The Yalue of the Earthly Life," p. 44.) 

If this is the teaching that is to supersede the Gospel, 
surely the evils denounced by that Gospel must rule, if 
not the outward ways and fashions of the multitude, at 
least their inward impulses and desires. 

Although I am not now writing for unbelievers, but 
Christians, I have purposely called attention to this out- 
come of Eationalism ; because, if private judgment is to 
supersede Divine authority, there is no real difference at 
bottom between this quasi-Christian teaching and the 
most pronounced free-thought. It is only a question of 
time, when private judgment, having swept away other 
mysteries of Christian Faith, will lay its impious hands 
on that Bliss which has ever been the hope of Christians, 
or that terrible sanction which, through " the fear of the 
Lord" and the dread of His justice, has hitherto kept the 
restless world in something like order. 

What is the worth of an eternity of happiness, or the 
dread of one of inconceivable misery, which, resting on a 
foundation of sand, must sooner or later be carried away 
by the surging and ungovernable waters of total un- 
belief ? 

This is the main point which I wish to put plainly be- 
fore my readers. There is no such thing as Christian 
Hope, if there is no Divine authority to sustain it. Surely 



168 



HOPE. 



it does not require any amount of learning or trained 
reasoning to grasp this argument in its entirety. Any 
one who cares to think may see its force in an instant, 
and see too that it is unanswerable. 

If eternity of punishment for the reprobate depends 
on popular opinion, and is to be swayed to and fro by 
the ever-changing views of popular sentiment, it ceases 
to be a Divine dogma. It is a mere human invention. 

It may seem to be founded on the written word of 
Revelation ; but that word is, in the hands of private 
judgment, " a dead letter." If it pleases men of learn- 
ing and position and society to say that " for ever and 
ever' has a certain meaning opposed to the notion of 
eternal duration, and there is no Divine authority to con- 
trol these views, it is not the letter of Scripture that de- 
termines the ground of hope, but a mere guess which 
may happen to fall in with the prevailing sentiment. 

What matters it if our Divine Lord has said, " The 
wicked shall go into everlasting fire," if private judg- 
ment, backed by high names, declares that He meant 
nothing of the kind? The men who speculate in this 
way on the meaning of Scripture, may call themselves 
orthodox ministers of the Christian religion, and assure 
the public that they have gone carefully into the whole 
question, and that they have caught the correct meaning, 
and moreover that they have prayed earnestly for light 
from above ; they are as much Rationalists, as those who 
vaunt the philosophy of progress above the intellectual 
capacity of Christ. 

Christian Hope, or " Eternal Hope," or Hope how- 
ever characterized, as the pole-star of the Christian life, 
becomes at once, under this process, as a mere "will-o'- 
the-wisp" that must lead multitudes to destruction. 



HOPE. 



169 



For, if an eternity of punishment rests not on Divine 
authority, or the explanation of an Infallible and Divinely 
commissioned teacher, an eternity of bliss is placed pre- 
cisely in the same position. 

It is a delightful dream, if you will, but only a dream, 
and it must some day or other melt away into the indis- 
tinctness of a faded and dim transparency. 

How shall a hope like this, fainter far than the tradi- 
tionary belief which, in times long gone by, led men, in 
their desire to propitiate a Zeus or a Poseidon, — mere crea- 
tures of the imagination, — even to sacrifice an Iphigenia, 
— sustain the bare elements of a forgotten faith against the 
selfishness of brutal appetite ? Alas for the genera- 
tions to come, when the strongest passions of unrestrained 
human nature shall battle amid the upheavals of nations 
and " the crash of worlds" ! 

Divine Hope, the source and centre of all desires that 
war against the spirit, is, according to the Catholic 
Church, intimately allied to Divine Faith. It is not the 
same virtue, for there may be Faith without Hope. 
" The devils believe and tremble but there can be no 
Divine Hope that does not rest on the solid and im- 
mutable basis of Divine Faith. For, as the Apostle 
says, " Faith is the substance of things hoped for" (Heb. 
xi. 1). 

Hope is not a positive assurance of Divine favor, as 
Luther madly taught. There is no respectable body of 
his countrymen who, however they exalt his name, would 
care to confide their eternal welfare to so vague and un- 
certain a sentiment. Some poor pious souls, who have 
been trained by this school of thought, may be able to 
work up their excited feelings to what they consider an 
absolute assurance of the Heavenly gift. God help 



170 



HOPE. 



theni, if in their ignorance of their own presumption, and 
of the tricks of their spiritual enemy, they rest on this 
broken reed ! How frail and perishable it looks to the; 
eyes of those who have been taught " to work out their 
salvation with fear and trembling" ! And with what a 
shudder they would contemplate their entry into the 
other world, and appearance before the awful tribunal of 
the Great Judge, if there was no power to bear them up, 
save this most insidious of all temptations ! 

Catholic Faith has nothing in common with the grim 
fanaticism of Calvin. The good Catholic is not disturbed, 
at his last hour, by gloomy speculations as to whether 
Christ died for him individually or not ; as to whether 
his name may figure in the mystic scroll of the elect, or of 
the reprobate preordained to damnation from all eternity. 
He is helped by the good priest, or the pious members of 
his own family, carefully trained in the rudiments of 
Catholic Faith, to look with confidence to Jesus, who died 
for him individually, as well as for all mankind. The 
words of the Apostle, " I live in the Faith of the Son of 
God, who loved me and delivered Himself for me" flash 
comfort on his troubled soul, " brightening the storm" of 
physical woes " it cannot calm ;" and he says with his ex- 
piring voice, " In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiri- 
tummeum" — " Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my 
spirit." 

This is no mere sentiment, depending on feelings of emo- 
tional fervor, stirred up from the shallow pool of human 
speculation. It is the echo of the words of Divine Faith, 
which, borne forever onward by the infallible guidance 
of the Holy Spirit of God, reach him even from the foot 
of the cross where Jesus died, repeating the self-same 
words. 



HOPE. 



171 



He has received the Holy Communion, and he knows 
with a certainty stronger than that of the favored Job 
that " his Redeemer lives ;" and that, made one with him 
in the adorable Eucharist, a he abideth in Christ, and 
Christ in him," and that the merciful Saviour will, ac- 
cording to His promise, preserved in all its purity and in- 
tegrity by the same Infallible Church, " raise him up on 
the last day." 

Nothing shows more clearly the unsteady and shift- 
ing character of a belief founded on private judgment, 
than the eagerness with which men catch at any theory 
that will promise to save them from the wrath to come. 
If the new-fangled notion is put f orward by a man of un- 
doubted genius and world-wide reputation, it is hailed 
with rapture, and the ungodly congratulate each other, 
and " make merry and send presents to each other," be- 
cause the prophets who tormented them with the pros- 
pect of Divine vengeance, are supposed to be no more. 

" The Eternal Hope" of Canon Farrar has, for this rea- 
son, been enthusiastically received by a large class, who 
see in its ingenious and learned arguments, the forcible 
expression of their own dim and shadowy aspirations. 
Alas for " the inhabitants of the earth," if surmises of 
human opinion, however plausible, form their ground of 
hope concerning the dark future, and that world of which 
we can know nothing, except through the glimpses af- 
forded us by Divine and Infallible teaching ! 

It is scarcely to be wondered at that, in their perplexi- 
ties about this awful problem, men who have rejected 
Divine authority and the teaching of the Church, and 
who yet cannot bring themselves to regard death as the 
end of all things for them individually, nor yet to place 
confidence in any human speculations, are tempted to 



172 



HOPE. 



seek for some ground of hope in the misty labyrinths of 
Spiritism. 

I have been told of a young fellow in this colony who 
fancied that he was wiser than the Church, and who, just 
as his father had passed away, declared to his friends that 
if he could by any means, no matter how daring, bring 
back the soul to tell him its experience, he would attempt 
it. Suppose he had found a medium who, like the "Witch 
of Endor, undertook to evoke the spirits of the dead, and 
that in answer to his questions about the eternity of pun- 
ishment, and the state of souls in the next world, he was 
told, either through knocks rapped out of furniture, or 
by words written by invisible hands, something that co- 
incided with his own fancies. What a sorry ground of 
Hope would be afforded here ! Yet I have no doubt that 
many join the Spiritists with no other object than, by 
their unholy tricks, to have a peep behind " the dark 
glass" which Providence has so wisely interposed between 
this life and the life to come. 

They hear strange things, it is said, and receive com- 
munications, which sometimes fall in with preconceived 
notions, and sometimes conflict with them. That any 
people of ordinary intelligence and Christian training 
can attach weight to such delusions, or find, in the arti- 
fices of the spirits of deceit and darkness, a ground for 
hope, seems almost incredible. But there is no limit to 
the vagaries of individual judgment, when, gathering just 
so much as it pleases from the pages of the Scriptures, it 
presumes to form ideas of the life beyond the grave, in- 
dependently and in defiance of Divine authority. 

The devil was a liar from the beginning, and if he and 
his companions in misfortune choose to humor inquisitive 
folly by some external form of temptation, there is no 



HOPE. 



173 



Christian who retains a vestige of Faith who should not 
know by instinct, that such communications are worthless 
and deceitful. 

I have heard men argue that Spiritism is a sovereign 
remedy for materialism ; but the Faith and Hope of an 
earnest Spiritist are no more like Christian Faith and 
Hope than the ravings of a demoniac are like the blessed 
visions that sustained the courage of the first martyr. 
The infatuated devotees of this dark art learn, sooner or 
later, how wretchedly they have been deceived ; and if 
they have not been reduced to that pitiable state of weak- 
mindedness that borders on insanity and enslaves their 
intellects, they turn from the accursed thing with loath- 
ing and disgust. 

I have been betrayed into these remarks by the knowl- 
edge I have acquired in the experience of more than 
thirty-five years of missionary life. I know well that 
one of the most ordinary temptations which assails a de- 
clining Faith, is the desire to gather information of the 
world beyond the grave, from those who have already 
passed the dread bourne. 

They who seriously indulge in such reveries as these, 
have almost completely lost confidence in God, and are 
in a fair way to eternal darkness and despair. 

Hope in this direction there is none. The unfortunate 
Dives hoped, that if one from the dead went to his 
brothers, and told them the secrets of his " place of tor- 
ments," those he still loved might thus be saved from 
his misery. But he was assured by Divine Truth, 
speaking through the mouth of Abraham, that if his 
friends heeded not the teaching of the then existing 
Church, they would pay no regard to the testimony of 
one actually risen from the dead. 



174 



HOPE. 



Let those who are silly enough to listen wilfully to this 
temptation be assured, that there is no possible way of 
evading the path marked out for men of good will by 
our Divine Saviour, — the path in which not even fools 
can err, — and that it is only by hearing the Church and 
obeying her voice they can securely hope to enter into 
the Kingdom of Heaven. 

How transcendently beautiful ! how serenely bright 
burns the star of Hope, unfolded by the Catholic Church 
to the view of her faithful children ! No wonder that 
earnest Catholics, who love to ponder on " the glory to 
come, that shall be revealed in us" (Rom. viii. 18), are in 
time absorbed in its contemplation, and lose all desire for 
worldly pleasures. As the poet pictures to himself the 
exalted sentiments of those who love to study the works 
of the Omnipotent revealed in the starry heavens, and, 
in a transport of admiration, exclaims, 

" Who e'er saw thern brightly shining 
And turned to earth without repining; 
Nor wished for wings to fly away, 
And mix with their eternal ray?" 

so may we say of those who live in the Faith and 
Hope of Christ, the earth has no charms for them but 
those gleams of innocent joy which in a moment are gone, 
like the quickly fading beauty of the flowers with which 
they love to adorn the altar of the Incarnate God. They 
know that He has taught them to "seek first of all 
the Kingdom of G-od ;" and bade them pray for the ad- 
vent of His Kingdom, as, after His glory, the foremost 
object of all our petitions, — " Thy Kingdom come." 

The Catholic Church teaches all her children to hope 
for eternal life, and to hope also for the means of attain- 
ing this great end of our being. She bids sinners hope, 



HOPE. 



17^ 



as well as the just, and lays down, as a fixed and eternal 
principle, that to despair of God's infinite mercy would 
be the crowning sin of a sinful life. 

!Nb doubt she warns them against the sin of presump 
tion, and the enormity of continuing to offend God, 
because He is good, and patient, and long-suffering. 
But when the end comes, and the wretched sinner, who, 
in spite of repeated warnings and calls to repentance, 
finds himself on the verge of Judgment, and is filled 
with terror at the fearful prospect of falling, in a few 
short moments, into the hands of an angry God, every 
effort of the Catholic priest is directed to inspire hope, 
and the sorrow that springs from unbounded confidence 
in the mercy of the Great Being who alone can save him 
from eternal ruin. 

It is well known, that there is no case of misery and 
distress that so thrillingly affects a Catholic congregation, 
as the grief of friends for one who seems to have the 
thought fixed in his mind, that his sins are too great to 
be forgiven. In Catholic countries, such a case as this — 
the bare possibility of any one dying in despair — seems 
naturally, and by a sort of instinct, to kindle the piety 
and ardent charity of every one who hears the afflicting 
news. Not only religious communities will join in con- 
tinuous prayer, for the conversion of such a soul ; but 
families will take up the matter, with more keen interest 
than if the earthly life of one dear to them was at stake. 
And when the glad tidings have gone forth, that the 
prodigal child has turned with true compunction to the 
Father in Heaven and to the Divine Saviour, there is a 
sense of relief amongst the whole neighborhood, that 
could scarcely be credited by those who have not wit- 
nessed such an event. 



176 



HOPE. 



The fate of J udas, the death of one wild with despair 
and almost mad with terror, is the greatest evil by far to 
be apprehended by Catholic feeling, in this world of 
many trials and afflictions. 

Strangers to our Faith, who have listened to the 
prayers of the Church prescribed for the dying, are gen- 
erally more touched by their pathetic appeal to the 
Creator, in favor of weak nature, than with the most 
solemn portions of Catholic worship. 

" Remember, O Lord, he is Thy creature, and admit 
him, who has no hope but in Thy mercy, to the Sacra- 
ment of Thy Reconciliation. Through Christ our Lord, 
Amen." " May Christ deliver thee from torments, who 
was crucified for thee ! May He deliver thee from eternal 
death who vouchsafed to die for thee !" These prayers, 
springing from the Faith and Hope and Charity of the 
Church of ages, recited alike for the spiritual welfare of 
the most persistent sinner, as for the saint, are, all through, 
most calculated to arouse and sustain hope, and un- 
bounded confidence in Him " with whom there is mercy 
and abundant Redemption." 

"When it is considered, that here there is no mere pious 
sentiment dictated by human notions of what might 
reasonably be expected from a God of infinite mercy, 
but that every thought and desire and petition has its 
origin in Faith, non-Catholics may have a glimpse, at 
least, of the consolation which the ministrations of 
religion and the prayers of the priest afford to the dy- 
ing Catholic. It is not the soothing tone of voice, nor 
the kindness of manner, nor tender expressions of fatherly 
affection, that seem to pour a balm on the sufferings that 
precede the last agony : it is certain and immovable Faith, 
and the Hope that springs from Faith, that sustain the 



HOPE. 



177 



soul in this terrible ordeal. The good Catholic knows 
that every sentence put into the mouth of the attendant 
priest, and every thought suggested by him, is the plain 
teaching of the spirit of trutli — " household words" in 
the Church of God for over eighteen hundred years. 
And hence it is easily understood, that they who know 
the full security promised to those who hear the Church 
with the docility of little children, should feel, as the 
world is fading from their view, and earthly sights and 
sounds have ceased to reach the soul, and the silence and 
darkness of death is closing round, an instinctive desire 
to be caught to the bosom of the loving mother, who, 
from the days of the Apostles, has been the only mother 
of all who believe that Christ is the Son of God ; and 
have, even in this last hour of their existence, learned to 
love Him above all things. 

There is a prejudice, arising from ignorance, against 
the Church, as if she taught her children to confide in 
their own works, and in the intercession of Saints, rather 
than in the infinite merits of our Divine Saviour. There 
could not be a charge more unfounded. 

If the Church bids us hope for a reward for any good 
we may have done purely for God's sake, it is not as if 
she taught that our best deeds were in themselves deserv- 
ing of a recompense. Whatever good we do springs, in 
its very conception, from God's grace ; it is this super- 
natural power that enables us to persevere and accom- 
plish it ; and if we hope for a reward, by co-operating 
with the Divine impulse and sustaining power, it is only 
because we are taught by the Church to have unbounded 
hope in the promises of Christ. 

It is the unfailing promise of a merciful God, that alone 
establishes a right to reward in those who hear His Word 



178 



HOPE. 



and keejD it. The Council of Trent has defined that it is 
a heresy deserving anathema to say, that the just ought 
not to expect and hope for an eternal reward for the good 
works that have been done in God, through His mercy 
and in virtue of the merits of Christ, when they have 
persevered to the end in doing good and keeping the Di- 
vine Commandments. (Sess. VI., Cap. XVI., Canon 
XXVI.) 

If it would be a grievous sin for even the most sinful 
to despair of the Divine mercy, it would be a still greater 
sin for those who have, through life, loved and served 
Him faithfully, to doubt of His fidelity to His promises. 

St. Paul was thoroughly imbued with this doctrine 
when he said : " I have f ought a good fight ; I have fin- 
ished my course ; I have kept the faith. For the rest, 
there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the 
Lord, the just Judge, will render to me at that day ; and 
not to me only, but to them also who love His coming" 
(2 Tim. iv. 7, 8). 

How superior is this doctrine, even when viewed in 
itself, — so humble and so full of loving confidence in the 
Divine mercy, — to that positive assurance of imputed jus- 
tice, which, amongst most Christians who are not Catho- 
licc, seems to constitute the essence of what they call 
Faith ! I say what they call Faith, because, through the 
absence of Divine authoritative teaching, it is an assur- 
ance founded only on fallible human interpretation of 
the written Word of God. Real Faith excludes doubt ; 
and real Faith is the only solid ground for Hope. 

When it is said of the dead, who had built their hopes 
of eternal salvation on human formularies, and systems 
of belief invented by men, that " their end was peace," 
one who calmly considers the subject cannot help think- 



HOPE. 



179 



ing of the Words of Holy Writ : " Even the prophets of 
Israel that prophesy to Jerusalem, and that see visions 
of peace for her : and there is no peace, saith the Lord 
God" (Ezechiel xiii. 16). Happy are they " who fall 
asleep in the Lord," when " they are taught of God," and 
by the Church which has authority from Him to teach : 
but that rest may be rudely broken, which is apparently 
enjoyed by those who prefer their own will to the Divine 
appointments. 

The chosen people fancied to themselves that they 
were justified in their complaints, because God had not 
regarded their observance of the law. They had done 
what was commanded by the interpreter of God's will in 
their regard ; they had not imagined to themselves a 
course of action which seemed to them good and com- 
forting and full of hope. They, on the contrary, sub- 
jected their carnal appetites to the rigors of fasting, 
and afflicted their souls by severe penance ; and so they 
cried out, " Why have we fasted, and Thou hast not re- 
garded ; have we humbled our souls, and Thou hast not 
taken notice ?" And the prophet replies, in that passage 
which should be well remembered by those who will not 
hear the Church : " Behold in the day of your fast, your 
own will is found " (Isaias lviii. 3). 

It seemed a fine thing to Saul, in the hour of his tri- 
umph over Am alec, to have prepared a splendid sacrifice 
out of the best of the flocks and herds of this accursed 
people. He had, he thought, fulfilled the orders com- 
municated to him by the mouth of God's prophet ; but 
he would do more, and testify his reverence for God in 
his own way, and he hoped that his reward would be 
great exceedingly, and therefore he said boastingly to 
Samuel, " I have fulfilled the Word of the Lord." He 



180 



HOPE. 



little dreamt that by this rash act he had merited his 
reprobation. And Samnel said : " Doth the Lord desire 
holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of 
the Lord should be obeyed ? For obedience is better 
than sacrifice ; because it is like the sin of witchcraft to 
rebel, and like the crime of idolatry to refuse to obey" 
(1 Kings xv. 13, 23). 

Our Divine Lord has said : " Not every one that saith 
to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Hea- 
ven ; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in 
heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven" 
(Matt. vii. 21). 

Hence I conclude that all that hope is vain and seduc- 
tive which is not founded on simple, humble, and obe- 
dient Faith ; and such Faith is absolutely impossible un- 
less, through the teaching of a living, speaking, and in- 
fallible guide, we learn to know with certainty what God 
has taught. 

Do I mean to say, therefore, that those whose "end is 
peace," and who seem to "fall asleep in the Lord," and 
who die in certain assurance of their eternal salvation, 
and full of reverent love for Jesus, are " even as others 
who have no hope" ? God forbid ! We know, by the 
teaching of the Church, that God loves those who love 
Him ; and we may therefore hope that they who, by no 
fault of theirs, have been robbed of their reasonable 
Faith, and have grown up insensibly in error, but yet 
have tried to love and serve God according to their con- 
science, may receive, even at the eleventh hour, that illu- 
minating grace from above, which will enable them in 
one glance to see their error and to detest it, and then 
tranquilly to resign themselves into the hands of God, 
full of hope in the infinite merits of their Divine Saviour. 



HOPE. 



181 



Should any Christians, however, through presumption 
on the Divine mercy, be careless and indifferent about 
obeying God, and hearing the voice of the Church, and 
take their salvation into their own hands, either by the 
exercise of private judgment, or by following the teach- 
ing of guides as blind and fallible as themselves, they 
should learn betimes to fear the consequences of a fatal 
mistake, and a " fall into the pit," against which our 
Divine Lord has so plainly guarded us. (Matt. xv. 14.) 

When they have had reasonable grounds for doubting 
this guidance and pay no attention to the matter, and 
make no attempt, by prayer and inquiry, to settle their 
doubts, and comfort themselves with the assurance that 
they are in a better position than superstitious Papists ; 
or that one religion is just as good as another ; and that 
no Christian can help doubting at times whether he is 
right or wrong : they should know that this is trifling 
with " the one thing necessary," and preparing the way 
for daring presumption, and disobedience to the com- 
mands of God, and the perversity of self-will which cuts 
away the ground of Christian and supernatural hope. 

In the next chapter, I mean to show how intimately 
the great virtue of Charity, as well as Hope, is involved 
in the Faith that comes through hearing the Church of 
God. 



182 



CHARITY. 



CHAPTEE IX. 



Charity. 

AT the close of his admirable sermon on the " Tri- 
umph of the Church/' Cardinal Manning says : 
" And next as you have Faith, so you ought to have the 
warmth of Charity. Where there is light, there is 
warmth ; and where there is greater light, there is greater 
warmth. "Where there is perfect truth, there ought to 
be perfect charity. You who have the whole Revelation 
of God, ought to have the whole charity of God in you." 

There is no doubt, as His Eminence so beautifully ex- 
presses it, " where there is perfect truth, there ought to 
be perfect charity." I would say in addition, where 
there is not this perfect truth, there cannot exist the 
virtue of charity in that wide sense in which this virtue 
is inculcated by St. Paul. 

The charity that is in Christ Jesus, and which is to 
form the model of our Christian love for the neighbor, 
cannot be conceived as a possible virtue, without the 
plenitude of Faith. The reason for this is plain. 

Charity, as the " new commandment," cannot be 
grounded on natural motives. Natural motives always 
involve the love of self ; and a grain of selfishness is de- 
structive of the very essence of Christian charity. 

If we bring the virtue from the region of the abstract 
to the field of practical application, and view it in the 
concrete, we shall see at once the meaning of the words 
of the Apostle, " Charity seeketh not her own." 



CHARITY. 



183 



I suppose there never was, in the history of the 
Church, a spectacle of such glowing charity as that which 
animated the Christian flock that sprung into existence 
on the day of Pentecost. When the spirit of truth and 
Divine Love poured forth the germs of the new creation 
from the lips of St. Peter, the three thousand who were 
converted by the preaching of this Apostle mast have 
realized to themselves the fulness of Faith and Love. 

Those who received the Holy Ghost in those early 
times, for years after the sensible outpouring of the 
Holy Spirit, manifested by the gift of tongues, and other 
supernatural endowments, how ample were the gifts and 
graces which accompanied the sacramental rite of the im- 
position of hands, whereby the first converts received 
these extraordinary blessings. They must have been 
ampler still while yet the tongues of fire burned above 
the heads of the Apostles. 

And what was the grand characteristic which pre- 
eminently distinguished the little flock from the " per- 
verse generation" of Judaism and paganism, amid which 
it so suddenly sprung into existence? It was the un- 
mistakable union of will and sentiment — " All they that 
believed were together, and had all things in common" 
(Acts ii. 44). And u when the Lord added daily to their 
society such as should be saved," "the multitude of 
believers had but one heart and one soul " (Acts iv. 32). 

Now where there is one selfish passion working in the 
human heart, it keeps that heart effectually from uniting 
with other hearts. Take the purest love that can be im- 
agined in this world, and it will break down and perish 
under such a contamination. 

The selfish mother, the mother who loves the worldly 
incense offered to beauty, will forget the child of her 



184 



CHARITY. 



bosom. The husband who idolizes the woman who has 
given him her first love will forget her, and leave her and 
his children to perish in hunger and want and misery, — 
nay, more: he will rob them of the fruits of their 
hard industry, — if he allows his heart to be weaned from 
her and them by a selfish craving after intoxicating 
drink. Need I say how soon, and how fatally, selfish 
ambition, or pride, or avarice, or the passionate excite- 
ment of gambling, will trample upon the ruins of friend- 
ship, and stamp out the very elements of an affection 
that once seemed everlasting? 

This is evidently the result of inordinate selfishness on 
any human love, no matter how real it once was, and how 
deeply seated in the heart ; it prevents the union of one 
heart with another ; and rises up, like a monstrous hydra 
or dragon, frightening away, by its very aspect, the ap- 
proach of tender sentiments. 

Of course the effects of selfishness are much more de- 
structive when they come in contact with the Charity 
that is in Christ Jesus, and which He commanded His 
disciples to take up as the model of their love for one an- 
other. His love for the world was the most disinter- 
ested that could be conceived. He gave up everything, 
not only His life, but His honor, and all that belonged 
to Him as God, save only His sanctity, to make us happy, 
who could not contribute one iota to His happiness. 

Hence I conclude that no selfish feeling can be con- 
ceived as coexistent with Christian Charity. Philan- 
thropy, benevolence, natural kindness and amiability of 
disposition, can be imagined that will rise above any out- 
ward show of this feeling of self-love, which shocks even 
natural instincts. 

But self-love is the most insidious of all human pas- 



CHARITY. 



185 



sions, and can veil its detestable features under the 
fairest forms. It will lurk at the bottom of what seem 
to be the noblest qualities of the natural man, and find 
its secret delight in the admiration that apparently gener- 
ous sacrifices never fail to evoke, and in the gratification 
that invariably accompanies acts of kindness and benefi- 
cence. 

It is easy to forgive an injury, when the reward is 
higher far in the inward sentiment, than the satisfac- 
tion of malignant hatred ; and it requires no super- 
human effort to strip ourselves of some cherished object 
for the sake of another, when we know from experience 
that this gift of money, or something as dear to us, will 
purchase an inward pleasure, superior to any that is 
afforded by the enjoyment of sense. 

If this reasoning is applied to religious differences, and 
the estrangement that accompanies the odium theologicum, 
my readers will at once perceive its drift in connection 
with the impossible union of charity and the right of 
private judgment. Religious differences, when there is 
anything like earnestness of religious feeling, are fatal 
even to domestic peace. 

The Catholic Church well knows this fact ; and there- 
fore uses every means in her power, consistent with human 
prudence, to divert her children from matrimonial con- 
nections with those of a different communion. Such 
unions must end, in case the n on- Catholic person does 
not yield to the Divine authority of the Church, either 
in religious indifference or heart-burning dissensions. 
"What a conflict it must be between the love of God above 
all things, and the love of the being to whom lasting love 
has been solemnly pledged, when these feelings come into 
actual antagonism ! 



186 



CHARITY. 



Now, what I want to bring out clearly is, that any sys- 
tem of religious teaching which is opposed, in its prin- 
ciples, to the maintenance, or even existence, of super- 
natural charity, cannot possibly have formed part of the 
plan of our Divine Redeemer for the training and per- 
fection of His disciples. It is evidently His blessed will 
that all who believe in His name should be brought into 
"the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephes. 
iv. 3), that all might be " one body and one spirit," and 
have "one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism." 

When considering the little nock which accompanied 
Him through Judea, He looked forward to the develop- 
ment of the Church of all nations, He said, " And other 
sheep I have that are not of this fold : them also I must 
bring, and they shall hear My voice ; and there shall be 
made one fold and one Shepherd " (John x. 16). 

His prayer at the Last Supper, when he poured out the 
fondest desires of His loving heart, brings out His grand 
object so clearly, that no one can imagine for a moment 
that He contemplated " unity in vanity ;" but a compact 
body professing, " with one mind and one mouth," the 
glory of God the Father. 

How, by any strain of thought, can a plan like this fall 
in with the principle of private judgment, which has 
desolated Christendom with its almost innumerable and 
never-ending divisions % 

Did He wish that Christians hearing His voice, and 
following His guidance, should be ever warring with 
each other ; and, by their bitter dissensions and prejudices, 
that they should change the expression of pagan wonder 
and admiration at the Charity and bond of union of the 
early Christians, into the most severe and cutting sar- 
casm, that could be uttered against the Christian name ? 



CHAEITY. 



187 



The pagans used to say, in the primitive ages of 
Christianity, " See how these Christians love one anoth- 
er !" These words, in the mouth of an enemy of Chris- 
tianity at the present day, would imply an intense irony, 
all the more severe and cutting, as it is felt by every 
thoughtful Christian, that our hopeless enmities are the 
chief scandal of our creed. 

This state of things, which Christians of all denomina- 
tions lament, is the natural consequence of private judg- 
ment as opposed to Divine authoritative teaching. Here 
are millions professing the great law of Charity as their 
main characteristic, and yet, as it has been cleverly said, 
" hating each other for the love of God." 

There is something more in this well-known phrase 
than is generally imagined, and one would do well to no- 
tice the full bearing of the expression. If our dissen- 
sions arose from personal considerations, as between men 
and men, there might be some hope of compromise and 
unselfish concessions. But when the sacred name of 
God is invoked as the cause of these deplorable divisions, 
and men try to persuade themselves that they are doing 
Him a service by hating their brethren who differ from 
them, there is evidently no prospect whatever of even a 
semblance of union. 

Let any one of common honesty ask himself what is 
the cause of this unquenchable hostility, and he will find 
but one answer possible ; " cela saute aux yeux" — it strikes 
one in a moment. It is the principle of unrestrained 
free-thought and private judgment, introduced into 
Christendom by the leaders of the so-called Eeformation. 

As long as Christians were faithful to the principle of 
authoritative teaching, however they might differ on 
minor points of discipline and practice, and however hot 



188 



CHARITY. 



and angry might be the disputes of the schools on ques- 
tions not defined by the Church, there existed a real 
union. 

If a Council could not be summoned to determine mat- 
ters called into doubt by new opinions, the Holy Father 
spoke " as one having authority " recognized by all ; and 
" the Faith once delivered to the Saints " was upheld by 
his decision. " Roma locuta est / resjinita est " — " Rome 
has spoken ; the affair is settled " — is a well-known passage 
from the great Doctor of the fourth century — St. Augus- 
tine. It was well understood at the time when he lived 
and taught and wrote, and no amount of dust-throwing 
and ingenious historical criticism can obscure its mean- 
ing. 

In this way there was no possibility of scandalous dis- 
cord ; and if it was not their own most grievous fault, 
Christians in all parts of the world were bound together 
most intimately as members of the one fold. 

That passage of the same St. Augustine which rung in 
the ears of Dr. Newman till, like the legendary bells of 
Whittington, it brought him back to the old Church — 
" Securus judicat orbis terra/rum:" "This Church of 
Rome, safe and secure in the position given her by her 
Divine Founder, judges the controversies of the whole 
world," — stands like the Pyramids, and bids defiance to 
the ever-shifting polemical sands of ages. Rather, like 
a mighty sledge-hammer, it dashes to pieces every little 
nut of adverse criticism flung at the Rock of Ages. 

To use his own words, in reference to his once-cher- 
ished theory of " the middle way" which, for many years, 
he imagined might guide him and the party who looked 
up to him for guidance and advice through the contro- 
versies with Rome, — " By those great words of the ancient 



CHARITY. 



189 



Father, interpreting and summing up the long and varied 
course of ecclesiastical history, the theory of the via 
media was absolutely pulverized." (" Apologia," p. 212.) 

If it be clear, from what I have said, that the rule of 
private judgment must necessarily lead to disunion, and 
that disunion in points of religion is incompatible, not 
only with Supernatural Charity, but even with that sem- 
blance of Christian forbearance better known by the 
name of " Broad Liberalism " or " Indifference," — whilst 
the Catholic Rule of Faith as necessarily leads to that unity 
which is " the bond of peace," — can there be a doubt as to 
which rule is the rule laid down by Divine teaching for 
our guidance ? 

Certainly, viewing the question for a moment in itself 
and, as the schoolmen say, a priori, there cannot be a 
shadow of doubt. 

The Catholic Rule of Faith is the only one that could 
have been established by Him who knew well that " scan- 
dals should come," and that His disciples would always 
need a guide to keep them in the one Fold. 

He who prayed so fervently that not only His Apos- 
tles, but those who " believed in their teaching" to the 
end of the world, should be " one, as He is one with the 
Father," and who proclaimed, " By this shall all men know 
that you are my disciples, that you love one another," 
could not, without a glaring inconsistency, have estab- 
lished that other so-called Rule which has, from its very 
nature and necessary consequences, split up Christendom 
into contending sects. 

If it be argued that the Catholic Rule of Faith miser- 
ably failed in practice, and led to superstition and corrup- 
tion so great, that the thinking part of mankind were 
compelled to protest against its shameful errors, I will 



190 



CHARITY. 



not enter into this part of the subject, beyond laying 
down some sound principles. 

Christ is God. He cannot deceive us in His promises. 
He certainly promised that He would be with His Apos- 
tles and their successors in the work of teaching to the 
end of time. He certainly promised that He would send 
them the Spirit of Truth to teach them all truth, and to 
abide with them forever. 

It is therefore, on the very face of it, manifest that 
the teaching Church, so guided, could not teach these 
errors. It would be an endless task to go into the much- 
disputed question of fact as to the errors taught, or the 
time when they were introduced by the everlasting 
Church. Our Divine Lord, who rejoiced that "the 
poor had the Gospel preached to them," could never 
have contemplated that these historical difficulties should 
be discussed by those who could have neither the learn- 
ing nor the time to discuss them. 

His disciples were never meant by Him to spend their 
lives in endless and angry discussions on these much-con- 
troverted points ; such a notion would completely upset 
the possibility of calm undoubting Faith in His word. 
No one could, with the docility so highly commended by 
Him, " hear the Word of God and keep it." It was, as 
many of the Fathers say, a higher merit in His Blessed 
Mother than even her exalted dignity as " Mother of 
God," that she so received and treasured in her heart 
the message announced to her by the angel, and His own 
teaching, and the words of those who were inspired by 
the Holy Ghost. 

Such Faith as this would, under the supposed case of 
the corruption of the teaching body, be a manifest im- 
possibility, not only to the unlearned, but to the most 



CHARITY. 



191 



profound scholars also. It would, in truth, require more 
than a long life to glance hurriedly over the ponderous 
tomes, that have been written for and against this view. 
We Catholics believe that every difficulty raised on this 
point of fact, has been answered again and again, conclu- 
sively, by men of the largest learning and the keenest 
critical acumen; that Councils of the Church, working on 
the fixed principle of tradition, of never accepting any 
dogma that has not been either explicitly or implicitly 
taught in preceding Councils, fully discussed and refuted 
these charges, whenever they were advanced. 

There the matter rests, as regards the great bulk of 
mankind. If this question of fact is to be settled by 
Christians, whether, on such and such occasions, the vis- 
ible, ever-existing, and teaching Church did or did not 
define and propose to the faithful erroneous doctrine, 
then that Faith " without which it is impossible to please 
God" is not within their reach: and not believing, they 
must necessarily, according to the express words of our 
Divine Lord, be condemned at the great judgment. " He 
that belie veth not shall be condemned" (Mark xvi. 16). 
And let it be noted that this condemnation had reference 
to the non-belief of the Gospel, or all the things which 
Christ commanded His Apostles to teach. 

In other words, our Divine Lord, who is " not willing 
that any should perish" (2 Pet. iii. 9), effectually ex- 
cludes the great body of those who profess to believe in 
His name from a chance of salvation. This is a mon- 
strous proposition ; and yet it logically and evidently fol- 
lows from the supposition that the Church of Christ ever 
taught error in any shape or form, for to teach one error 
opens up all the complex question. 

That supposition is therefore just as monstrous, and 



192 



CHAKITY. 



absurd, and untenable as the conclusion which should 
follow from it, and must, therefore, according to the first 
principles of sound reasoning, be absolutely rejected. 

It would be impossible to imagine how any body 
of Christians could seriously maintain a position so ex- 
travagant, if we did not take into account the fact, that 
unless, some way or other, they make a show of defending 
it, they are bound before all mankind to obey and hear 
the Church against which their fathers once impiously 
rebelled. 

Of course this is humiliating, but it would be better 
far that they submitted to any humiliation in this world, 
than bear the awful fate which awaits those who attempt 
to scandalize even the least of God's children. 

There are millions of faithful souls who are kept out 
of the Catholic Church by these oft-repeated stories of 
erroneous teaching and shameful corruption. 

History, since the Eeformation, is now admitted, by 
some of the leading writers of the day, to have been a 
shameless conspiracy against truth and the Catholic 
Church ; and yet these glaringly false accusations are 
repeated even in rudimentary books compiled for the 
instruction of youth. 

They " who consent to such things" should ponder on 
the terrible words addressed by our Divine Lord to those 
who thus scandalize, or place a stumbling-block in the way 
of innocent simplicity. " He that shall scandalize one of 
these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him 
that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and 
that he should be drowned in the depths of the sea" 
(Matt, xviii. 6). 

If, in addition to the crime of depriving these little 
ones (and with children may be numbered the poor 



CHARITY. 



193 



and the unlearned) of the possibility of Divine Faith, 
we consider that another, and if possible more grievons, 
crime, is committed, by uprooting Charity from their 
hearts, then it behooves those who wilfully lend them- 
selves to the work of calumniating the Spouse of Christ, 
and exciting contempt and hatred of their Catholic breth- 
ren, to consider their position. They who make " quar- 
rels and dissensions and sects" are placed by the Apostle 
in the same category with those who are guilty of mur- 
der ; and he declares that they " shall not obtain the King- 
dom of God " (Gal. v. 19-21). 

These are bold words, and men who differ from me 
will say, " Are not you violating Charity and exciting 
dissensions by insinuating such charges against your fel- 
low-Christians ?" 

I answer at once without hesitation. Show me a word 
that I have ever written, accusing any denomination of 
Christians of the crimes which are continually charged, 
even in these enlightened days, when the old craze against 
Popery is somewhat sobered by the assaults of free- 
thought, against my Catholic brethren, by men who pro- 
fess to be teachers of charity ; and I will submit to the 
most humiliating apology that may be required of me by 
the individual or party that proves the accusation. 

No ; every honest feeling that is in me would rise up 
against such baseness, and with God's help I will never 
breathe a word against the fair fame of any man who dif- 
fers from me in religion, because he so differs. Others 
may call me, as they do my Catholic brethren — in pulpit 
and in meeting — idolater, blasphemer, and what not. I 
have nothing to say against them but this, — that if they, 
knowingly and willingly, charge the Catholic Church with 
teaching hideous, and immoral, and unchristian doctrine, 



194 



CHARITY. 



they are sinning grievously, not against men, but against 
the Eedeemer Himself, who has said to the first lawfully 
commissioned teachers of His doctrine, and of course in 
them to their successors in the ministry, "He that de- 
spiseth you despiseth Me." 

It is no justification for a calumny that it has been 
uttered by others, and by men of great name and position. 
Even the civil law will take cognizance of and punish 
the paper or the journal, that will propagate such slanders 
against individuals. 

Of course the old Church will take no steps to vindi- 
cate her character before the world ; for the world hates 
her, as it did her Divine Founder. She prays ever with 
Christ, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
they do." Still the crime is not the less deserving of 
Divine chastisement whenever it is not in a manner made 
excusable by unreasoning and ignorant prejudices. 

There are many who abuse the Catholic Church and her 
doctrines and practices who ought to know better. God 
help them if, by these ill-considered and unfounded 
charges, they scandalize the little ones of Christ ! 

I am only arguing against false principles, and I main- 
tain that I have proved to the satisfaction of every intel- 
ligent human being who reads these pages without passion 
or prejudice, that they who charge the Catholic Church 
with teaching grave error, either in the past or at the 
present time, are, by opposing her Divine Authority, 
rendering reasonable Faith in Revelation an impossibility 
and Divine Supernatural Charity equally impossible. 

In the next chapter, I propose to treat of authoritative 
teaching outside the Catholic Church, and to show that, 
however strongly it may be claimed, it is private judg- 
ment after all, and has no other basis than that which is 
essentially and entirely human. 



TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 195 



CHAPTER X. 

Authoritative Teaching Outside the Catholic 
Church. 

I FEEL, and have felt since I formed the plan of this 
book, that the subject on which I am about to enter 
is the most grave to which I have ever devoted my earn- 
est attention. It is not that it presents to my mind seri- 
ous difficulties. I believe that I have, by careful reading, 
set clearly before me at least its most prominent features, 
and all that it substantially involves. But I am almost 
at a loss how to present them to the public ; whether I 
shall simply sketch them in bold outline, or bring them out 
in those shades and colors which may develop more strik- 
ingly their abnormal peculiarities. This is a point on 
which I have pondered over and over again. I look at it 
seriously, not only from natural feelings, and considering 
the effect it may have on sensitive minds deeply interested 
in the question, and who believe or endeavor to believe 
that they have a Divine authority for " the Faith that is 
in them but from higher considerations, intimately as- 
sociated with the eternal welfare of those who differ 
from me. 

"We are taught by the Catholic Church to regard the 
eternal salvation of even one soul, for whom Jesus Christ 
died, as a matter of more importance than the material 
gain, apart from the interests of eternity, of a people, or 
a nation, or even the whole world. What, in fact, is this 
transitory life, whether of an individual or of a multitude, 



196 TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHUECH. 

compared to that future life, dimly shadowed though it 
be in the pages of Revelation, which will never end? 
And if I should, meaning to do good, wreck and ruin the 
eternal hopes of even one soul by imprudently upheaving 
its pious Faith, how shall I hope for pardon from the 
Great Being who loves this one soul as of infinite value % 

In all I have written about Faith, this consideration has 
been ever present to my mind, and I have carefully noted 
the difference there is between pious, simple, and trusting 
belief in the Great Saviour of mankind, and what the 
Apostle calls " rationabile obsequium" — " a reasonable 
service" (Rom. xii. 1), or the " obedience of the Faith" 
founded on sound principles. 

There are millions of souls, not externally members of 
" the one Fold," who are perfectly satisfied in their con- 
science with the religion in which they have been 
brought up, and who may be blameless in the eyes of 
God for the errors of their forefathers. They have a 
fragmentary belief in the chief doctrines of the Catholic 
creed ; they have been, most probably, validly baptized ; 
they try to serve God faithfully, and endeavor to love 
Him above all things, and so may hope for eternal life ; 
and if I should disturb this saving Faith of one of these, 
and, by a bold exposition of the unreasonableness of their 
security, leave them hopeless wanderers amid the laby- 
rinths of private judgment, what comfort shall it be to 
me if a few others are moved by my words to seek refuge 
and rest in the bosom of the everlasting Church ? 

One thought alone reassures me. We live in times 
when even the little ones of the flock of Christ must 
notice what is going on around them, either in the daring 
attitude of unbelief or in the marked fluctuations of re- 
ligious observance. If such as these exercise at all their 



TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 197 

reasoning faculties, they must think seriously on what is 
individually required of them by God as absolutely 
necessary for salvation. 

Their fathers and mothers, or those removed from the 
troubles of the present restless age, may have lived and 
died in peace, blissfully ignorant of any other way to 
Heaven but that which was pointed out to them by pious 
hands. But now there is no place for this dreamy rest ; 
and from the ignorant, as well as from the learned who 
are weary of the continual strife of wild theories and 
opinions and speculations about the awful future, there 
must go up continually before God the cry of anxious 
souls, " What must we do that we may be saved ?" 

Believing this to be a fact, becoming every day more 
apparent to thoughtful minds, I have resolved to speak 
out plainly, and answer this all-important question to the 
best of my ability. 

Let those who, like myself, have passed more than the 
half of the time ordinarily allotted to human life, look 
back for a moment and contrast either the present open 
manifestations towards natural religion, shown in the 
extreme levity of talk on sacred subjects, the neglect of 
church-going, and the absence of any external marks of 
piety : or, in the opposite direction, the ever-progressive 
movement towards the long-disused practices of the old 
Church, with what they remember, thirty or forty years 
ago, and they will easily understand my meaning. 

When I was young, there were, in Great Britain and 
the Colonies, very few who dared to talk Atheism or 
Deism openly. People shuddered, if even a ripple of 
the wave of Infidelity, which had devastated Continental 
Europe in the last century, disturbed their religious tran- 
quillity. Whatever they believed, whether they hated 



198 TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

Popery with all the virulence of Dissent, or preferred the 
respectable attitude of worshippers in the National 
Church of England, they at least believed in Christ and 
His plentiful Redemption ; they feared a personal God 
who was to judge them ; dreaded Hell, and hoped to gain 
Heaven. They looked with amazement on any one who 
was said to scoff at these tremendous truths, and were 
absolutely ignorant of the meaning of Agnosticism. 

But how is the case now? Why, even beardless 
youngsters will boast that they have shaken off the 
trammels of Christian worship, and, almost unconscious 
of any irreverence, laugh at what they call the simple 
credulity of their fathers. 

I do not speak of Catholic youth, for Catholic chil- 
dren, who are trained in their religion by pious parents 
and earnest priests, are ever the same in all times. They 
have nothing to learn in the way of religion from an un- 
believing world, and they rest securely in the truth 
transmitted from the days of the Apostles by the Divine 
authority of the Church. But outside the pale of the 
Catholic Church, he must be blind who, come to an age 
to notice passing events, does not perceive that old creeds 
and formularies, compiled by human wisdom, are rapidly 
breaking up ; and that soon the most matured judgment 
will be perplexed to know what new form of belief is 
coming next. 

How our fathers would have stared, if they saw Prot- 
estant ladies in the garb of nuns striding boldly through 
the streets, and Protestant churches, that could scarcely be 
distinguished from Catholic places of worship in their 
ritual, starting up in all directions ! 

Even those who wrap themselves up in the soothing 
robe of emotional Christianity and dream of ecstasies and 



TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 199 



the charms of pietism, must often feel their rest disturbed 
by the signs of the times. 

And therefore I say, every one capable of thinking 
must think, and think seriously, on the momentous ques- 
tion " What is truth ?" or what are they to believe and do, 
that they may have a reasonable hope of securing life 
eternal ? 

Hence if what I am about to say, in this chapter about 
authoritative teaching outside the Catholic Church, may 
disturb the pious faith of any one, it is only anticipating, 
by a few years at most, the natural consequences of the 
religious ferments of the day. 

I may as well lay down at once the proposition which 
I wish to establish, and it is this : Outside the Catholic 
Church, that is to say, the Church spread over the whole 
world, and in union with the See of Rome, there is in re- 
ality no Divine teaching authority. There are Churches 
which claim to have this authoritative teaching. But 
if they claim for themselves a teaching that is inspired 
by the Spirit of Truth, and therefore infallible, they 
manifestly cut the ground from under their feet. For 
they cannot assume to themselves a gift which Christ did 
not give to the Church established by Him to teach all 
nations. If the Church established by Christ was not 
in truth infallible, no other Church can claim this pri- 
vilege. If, on the other hand, the old Church actually, 
according to the promises of Christ, could not err, they 
who have rebelled against her must necessarily be in 
error. 

If, then, no Church but the one founded in the begin- 
ning by Christ can claim the power of teaching in- 
fallibly the meaning of revealed doctrine, I maintain 
there is no such thing as revealed religion amongst 



200 TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

them: and all the creeds and formularies and articles 
and constitutions, which are supposed to determine Faith 
on the written Word of God, are simply the outcome of 
Rationalism. 

Let me make the argument plainer ; for, seeing that the 
spirit of the age is rapidly sweeping away even the tradi- 
tionary and fragmentary belief of primitive Christianity, 
I need not fear the consequences, to pious and simple 
Faith, of pressing it to its logical consequences. 

One of the articles of the Church of England asserts, 
that no Church can claim to itself the power of teaching 
the revealed truth with infallible certainty. If this be 
true, we can have no positive certainty, that any dogma 
supposed to be contained in the Bible has been actually 
revealed by God. 

Critical analysis of the Holy Book shows, that every 
such supposed dogma is susceptible of different and, in 
most cases, of contradictory meanings : and if we have 
to fall back on the Lockian principle of testing every 
supposed dogma by its reasonableness, what is this but 
to say that Reason is supreme ; and that all our knowl- 
edge of God and His nature, and the soul, and the future 
state, is founded, not on the "Word of God, but on Reason 
alone ? 

And if we press the point still farther, it comes to 
this : How can Reason teach us anything about which 
Reason can know next to nothing ? Reason cannot give 
us an adequate idea of the nature of the Infinite ; Reason 
cannot picture to itself the nature of a spirit, or tell us 
what is this soul which is the source of our life. Reason 
breaks down altogether, when it attempts to grapple with 
the problem of life, even in the lowest organism to be 
found in the world. Reason can have no experience of 



TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 201 

that which is eternal, and therefore can determine 
nothing absolutely abont the future life, or know with 
infallible certainty, whether there is or is not a future 
at all. So that, without a Divinely inspired and living 
guide, we are ultimately bound to come to the " Un- 
known and the Unknowable" of Agnosticism. 

I know that there are certain truths about God and a 
future state which natural reason can demonstrate. Such 
is the teaching of the Catholic Church. But then the 
demonstration of these truths requires serious and pro- 
found thought ; and in a restless age like this, when, to 
use the expressive words of an American writer, " men 
are born tired," few are capable of creating in their 
minds a clear conviction on these transcendental subjects. 

Even the philosophers of old miserably erred in their 
efforts to sound the deep well of their interior conscious- 
ness ; and were led astray from truth, even by the care- 
ful study of the phenomena of nature. Socrates, in his 
old age, sacrificed a cock to an imaginary deity, and mis- 
took the suggestions of a demon for the inspirations of 
wisdom. Even the immortal Plato, enlightened though 
he was by the study of the sacred books of the Hebrews, 
and thus enabled to penetrate the veil which hides the 
Divine essence from the view of ordinary mortals, lost 
himself in a wild confusion and exaggeration of ideal 
doctrines, which are revolting to common-sense, and use- 
less for the practical guidance of mankind. 

There is nothing in such guesses and speculations as 
are dignified in this century by the name of Philosophy, 
to afford a solid resting-place for serious thought, or 
sound principles that may stem and control the impetu- 
osity and waywardness of sensual passion. 

These are subjects which, to use a hackneyed phrase, 



202 TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHUECH. 

" no fellah can understand." The truth is, not one in 
ten thousand cares to trouble himself about them. The 
busy multitude regard such things as tiresome riddles, 
and are disposed, with the laughing ease of Ethiopian 
choristers, "to give it up," if a question bearing in this 
direction is proposed to them. 

Hence I say that, if there is no living infallible guide 
to teach us the meaning of the written "Word of God, 
there is no Revelation that can be securely trusted. 
The truths embodied in the Holy Book will be stripped 
of their beauty by the ravages of free inquiry ; they will 
be scarred and withered and blighted by the fever of 
criticism, and, sooner or later, lose all hold not only on 
the minds of thoughtful readers, but on their hearts also. 

I do not hold, with Cardinal Newman, that there is no 
medium between Atheism and Catholicity. I think there 
is, at least for the multitude who do not reason out their 
thoughts. This is no doubt what His Eminence means 
when he says that "There is no medium in true phi- 
losophy between Atheism and Catholicity," and that " a 
perfectly consistent mind, under these circumstances in 
which it finds itself here below, must embrace either the 
one or the other." But when few are " perfectly con- 
sistent," and scarcely any are guided in their reasoning 
by " true philosophy," it practically comes to this, that 
there may be, and that there actually is, a certain amount 
of belief in natural religion, or fragmentary Christianity, 
even when men obstinately refuse to hear the Church. 

There may exist what I have called that pious Faith 
which I so much fear to disturb, and which I would not 
dare to trouble, if the signs of the times were not abso- 
lutely perplexing, and filling with intense anxiety about 
the necessary means of salvation even the great mass who 



TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 203 

used to be perfectly satisfied, and at entire peace with 
their conscience, in believing jnst as their fathers did 
before them. 

It is most interesting to follow out the plain and simple 
reasoning of the Cardinal's philosophy. It has the clear 
ring of the sterling metal about it, and even an unin- 
formed mind can catch the unmistakable soundness of its 
truth. He says, " I hold this still " (the opinion just 
quoted) ; " I am a Catholic by virtue of my believing in a 
God ; and if I am asked why I believe in a God, I an- 
swer, that it is because I believe in myself, for I find it 
impossible to believe in my own existence (and of that 
fact I am quite sure) without believing also in the exist- 
ence of Him, who lives as a personal, all-seeing, all-judg- 
ing Being in my conscience." (" Apologia," page 323.) 

This sums up, in a few words, the whole argument ; 
and effectually disposes of those smart sayings which are 
often, in these days, mistaken for cogent and unanswer- 
able reasoning against the claims of Christianity, as well 
as those of the Church, on the human conscience. Smart 
men love to say, " On what does that proof rest % And 
then that other — show me the solid basis on which you 
are piling up these proofs. Is it not, after all, the story 
of the tortoise at the bottom of the whole thing, support- 
ing the entire edifice of Religion, Church, and the Uni- 
verse ?" 

You cannot doubt your own existence ; there is what 
holds the place of the imaginary tortoise. You exist, 
and you feel in your inward individual conscience that 
there is a God above you, and that this all-wise and in- 
finitely bountiful Being must, from His very nature, 
supply even the least of His rational creatures with a 
reasonable ground for the Faith which He requires as a 



204 TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

necessary condition to salvation. Such reasonable ground 
can be found only in a Church which, by its unerring 
guidance, will lead us up to the very source of truth. 
The ultimate guarantee of the Divine Revelation is the 
Divine authority of the Church. 

This reasoning brought the grandest mind of our age 
to hear and obey the Catholic Church. Of course his 
conversion was the work of the supernatural grace of 
God ; but had he not been brought, step by step, to 
understand that the rock hewn out of the mountain by 
unseen hands, and placed immovably as the foundation 
of the imperishable work of Christ, was the only secure 
resting-place for his weary spirit, he might never have 
sought in earnest prayer that Divine help which has 
made him to-day one of the most humble and devoted of 
the children of the Catholic Church. 

Would that others who are disturbed and anxious about 
their salvation would look in the same direction ! Then 
might there be a hope that, as the ever-increasing anxiety 
about their eternal welfare spreads amongst men of good 
will side by side with the growth of impiety and unbe- 
lief in the thoughtless and reckless, all who sincerely love 
Jesus Christ, and believe in his name, might be brought 
into "the one Fold." 

I have shown that no Church but the Catholic Church, 
in communion with the See of Peter, claims the power of 
teaching with infallible certainty what God has revealed. 
I have shown, further, that no other Church can, with 
anything like consistency, dare to make such a claim. It 
belongs essentially and exclusively to the oldest Church 
in Christendom ; and who shall say that this is not the 
Church founded by our Divine Lord on Peter, and now, 
as ever, firmly united to the same Holy See ? 



TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 205 

" But," it will be said, " does it follow that there are 
not in Christendom other Churches that teach truth, and 
teach truth with authority binding on the members be- 
longing to them ?" 

I answer at once. There are other Churches besides 
the Roman Catholic which teach with authority, and 
which teach certain truths of Revelation. But they do 
not teach the truth under the guidance of an ever-in- 
dwelling Divine Spirit of truth, and the authority they 
exercise over the members of which they are composed, 
is not a Divine authority. The teaching, and the govern- 
ing power, in these Churches, are both absolutely human 
in their origin, human and fallible in their operation, and 
human, fallible, and powerless over the conscience of 
mankind. 

The reason simply is that they, one and all, disclaim 
the quality of infallibility. They openly profess that 
they are not guided by the spirit of truth, and conse- 
quently they cannot teach with certainty what God has 
taught. 

If pressed on this point, they are bound to declare that 
the doctrines which their founders have formulated from 
the Bible, are the creeds and formularies and constitu- 
tions of fallible men who may have been mistaken. 

The Anglican Church, at least that large and respecta- 
ble body of Anglicans who affect the name of Catholic, 
but who are generally known as the High-Church party, 
endeavor, in many ways, to evade this humiliating posi- 
tion. But, as Cardinal Manning says, " The Church of 
England formally and expressly denies the Divine autho- 
rity of the Church. The perpetual and ever-present as- 
sistance of the Holy Spirit, whereby the Church, in every 
age, is not only preserved from error, but enabled at all 



206 TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



times to declare the truth, that is, the infallibility of the 
living Church at this hour; this truth the Anglican 
Church in terms denies." (" England and Christendom," 
page 120.) 

As far as my reading goes, and I have studied the 
question carefully, not with a view of urging points po- 
lemical, but to find out the real state of the case, the 
matter in the Anglican Church stands thus : 

Putting aside the contention that the Anglican Church 
is as old as the Eoman Catholic Church, which some 
thoroughly honest men may perhaps believe, but which, 
in all its phases of subjective conception, is never seri- 
ously regarded by the theologians on either side, the 
point seems to be this : The Anglican Church, in its ar- 
ticles, founding its claim on the declaration that, as the 
great Patriarchal sees had taught error, so the Catholic 
Church in communion with the see of Peter also taught 
error, error of the worst character, idolatry even, cannot 
possibly claim for itself a privilege not secured to the old- 
est Christian Church in the world. There is no plausible 
ground, therefore, for any Church of later date claiming 
a privilege which the Church having the clearest claim 
to be the very Church established by our Divine Lord 
has not. 

This settles at once any pretension to the character of 
an infallible guide, in the sense of Cardinal Manning, 
whose words I have just quoted. 

The Anglican Church, therefore, whether High or 
Low, Broad or Narrow, is outside the bounds of any right 
to infallibility. The other pretensions of the High- 
Church party, set forth by its adherents as immensely 
superior to Dissent in any form, in the matter of author- 
itative teaching, are all reducible to the same level. Ra- 



TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 207 

tionalism, pure and simple, is the basis of this authority ; 
and Eationalism is not certainly Divine. 

I am writing for the public, who have neither time 
nor inclination to go into the minutise of polished reason- 
ing, and who I believe desire to know, in the fewest 
words possible, how the case stands, as between the An- 
glican Church and the Catholic Church in communion 
with, and governed by, the Holy See ; and, therefore, I 
do not make any effort to mince matters, but to give 
very briefly the results of my reading. 

It all comes to this. The Anglican Church, as a teach- 
ing body, whether in Convocation or by the voice of 
individual Bishops, or individual Parsons, or directed by 
the Privy Council, can give those who look up to her for 
guidance in matters of Faith, no assurance that rises one 
jot above the human teaching of any sect. 

Human learning, ability, genius, and all these qualities 
which eminently distinguish the Divines, who have en- 
joyed, for so many generations, the fruits of Catholic 
liberality in the universities of England, cannot, however, 
raise human teaching by one appreciable unit as regards 
Infallible certainty, above the emotional sayings of those 
who trust in the private spirit. Let us see what is in 
truth the principle which, amid many jarring and con- 
flicting views, is supposed to supply the place of Divine 
authoritative teaching. 

Cardinal Manning quotes, in the introduction to " Eng- 
land and Christendom," an extract from an Essay on the 
" Tendencies of Eeligious Thought in England," a passage 
which seems to me to give the shortest and most com- 
plete answer to this question. I give the substance of 
the views of this essay, in the words of His Eminence : 
" The author gives as his opinions that the period of Ka- 



208 TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

tionalism closed with 1830. I believe the reverse to be 
true. The inchoate or partial Rationalism of private 
judgment, criticising and measuring Christianity by rea- 
sonableness" (the principle of Locke), " came to an end 
when the reaction towards authority and Divine cer- 
tainty commenced ; but the period of complete and con- 
sistent Eationalism formally opened by a new reaction 
against this revived claim of authority, commenced about 
five or six years later. The essay above quoted proves 
beyond a doubt, that, from the time of Locke down to 
the time of Whately" (not so many years ago), "the 
reasonableness of Christianity, that is the credibility of 
its doctrines tested by Reason, was the dominant theology 
of Anglicans. This is essential, though undeveloped and 
unconscious Rationalism. But it is the basis of the whole 
Anglican system." (Introduction, xlvii.) 

There is a further move in this direction of later years, 
which any one, who cares to observe its symptoms, may 
see at a glance : it is the Rationalism of Germany, which 
supposes all truth to be contained within the limits of the 
Reason, and excludes even the bare idea of anything of 
a supernatural character. 

Farther on the Cardinal remarks, — " There can be little 
doubt that this disbelief and exclusion of the supernatu- 
ral in religion represents the mind and tendency of the 
majority of English laymen." 

I think that this disposes completely of a claim to 
Divine authoritative teaching in the Anglican Com- 
munion. 

A good deal is said nowadays about the Greek Church, 
and the probable union of "the Anglican branch" with 
this withered stem, kept alive by Mahommedan patronage, 
or the support of the Holy Synod of Russia. 



TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 209 

To all this I say — Dust — dust ! Fine writing may bring 
some deluded votaries of the system to fancy great things 
from a possible union of the Eastern Church ; and that, 
by such a union, Anglicanism may be in a position to 
dictate terms to Borne. 

But the Greek Church, still clinging as it does, to the 
seven sacraments, and the Beal Bresence, and the Sacri- 
fice of the Mass, and the honor due to the Blessed 
Mother of God, will, notwithstanding its degraded posi- 
tion, have nothing whatever to do with those who, in 
their formularies, trample on the fundamental mysteries 
of Christianity. 

The idea of union has been exploded long ago ; and 
when I hear laymen of fair education in the Anglican 
Church, speak hopefully of a move in this direction, I 
cannot help thinking that either they have not inquired 
deeply into the matter, or that they have not been fairly 
dealt with by those to whom they look for instruction in 
all that concerns their dearest interests. 

There is one thing I must say that astonishes me, and, 
as I am now advanced in life, and looking forward to the 
near approach of the awful Judgment, I cannot, by any 
effort of my mind, reconcile it with Catholic instincts. 

There are clergymen of the High-Church party, dis- 
tinguished by their learning and blameless lives, and their 
burning zeal for the welfare and progress of what they 
regard as their mother Church ; and they, knowing as 
well as Cardinal Newman, or Cardinal Manning, or any 
of the illustrious men who have recently left the Angli- 
can Church to become members of the one Fold, that 
this " Church of their Baptism," as they call it, cannot 
afford any certain or infallible teaching, yet take upon 
themselves to answer for the eternal salvation of the 



210 TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

many who appeal to them for advice and direction in 
their religious perplexities, and bid them remain as they 
are, and tell them that it would be a burning shame for 
any Anglicans to join the Church of Eome. 

What, in sober earnest, does this mean 1 " The Church 
of their Baptism" can only be, if there is any meaning 
in the phrase, the one true Church of Christ. Their 
fathers left this Church of their Baptism through excited 
feelings, when few comparatively had the learning to 
weigh the claims boldly advanced by rapacious tyranny 
under the guise of national loyalty, against the rights of 
the Mother given them by Christ. And these men, 
without any " reasonable service" that binds them to the 
Church roughly imposed upon them by human and arbi- 
trary authority, and without any safe ground of standing 
for themselves before God, confidently assure those who 
trust in their guidance, to persevere in their error until 
death. 

God forgive them ! The responsibility they take upon 
themselves is too awful, to find a justification in words, 
however specious. 

In my long experience of missionary life, having to 
deal with souls who desired to find rest and peace, out of 
the whirlwind of dissensions, in the bosom of Catholicity, 
I know of only one Anglican minister, who had the 
honesty and generosity to say, " Follow the dictates of 
your conscience, pray much, and God bless you !" 

These men, who scruple not to drag others with them 
into the depths of heresy and schism, will have much to 
answer for. They may be infallible Popes in their own 
estimation ; but the flimsy veil that covers these high 
pretensions, will be, one day, rudely torn to atoms. 

As regards the claims of Pietism, and the theory of 



TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 211 



Calvin, that "Scripture shines sufficiently by its own 
light" and private inspiration, and "the inward testi- 
mony," and the gushing things which lecturers pour 
forth in praise of the overwhelming evidence of the 
written word, testifying to itself, I have nothing to say. 

These subjective arguments do not come within the 
scope of sound reasoning. They are all answered by a 
glance at the vagaries of private judgment. Such bitter 
dissensions, springing from this fertile source of error, 
are so plainly before the whole world, that he who does 
not heed them, would not listen to the warnings of one 
risen from the dead. 

If men could only be brought to lay aside their preju- 
dices, and think really for themselves, they would soon 
find an answer to their perplexities, and to their earnest 
cry, " What must we do in order to be saved ?" in the 
contemplation of the old Church, ever calm in the midst 
of the troubles that agitate the world, and never so happy 
and rejoicing, as when " it is accounted worthy to suffer 
reproach for the name of Jesus" (Acts v. 41). 

I will close this chapter with a passage from Cardinal 
Newman : it bears strongly on the unthinking spirit of 
our times. 

" Turn away from the Catholic Church, and to whom 
will you go ? It is your only chance of peace and assur- 
ance in this turbulent, changing world. There is nothing 
between it and scepticism, when men exert their reason 
freely. Private creeds, fancy religions, may lie huge and 
lifeless, and cumber the ground for centuries, and dis- 
tract the attention, and confuse the judgment of the 
learned ; but in the long-run it will be found that either 
the Catholic Religion is verily and indeed the coming 
in of the unseen world in this, or that there is nothing 



212 TEACHING OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

positive, nothing dogmatic, nothing real in any of our 
notions as to whence we come and whither we are going. 
Unlearn Catholicism, and yon become Protestant, Uni- 
tarian, Deist, Pantheist, sceptic in a dreadful, but infalli- 
ble succession, only not infallible, by some accident of 
your position, of your education, and of your cast of 
mind ; only not infallible, if you dismiss the subject of 
religion from your mind, deny your reason, devote your 
thoughts to moral duties or dissipate them in the engage- 
ments of the world. Go then, and do your duty to your 
neighbor, be just, be kindly tempered, be hospitable, set 
a good example, uphold religion as good for society, 
pursue your business, or your profession, or your pleas- 
ure, eat and drink, read the news, visit your friends, 
build and furnish, plant and sow, buy and sell, plead 
debates, work for the world, settle your children, go 
home and die, but eschew religious inquiry, if you will 
not have faith, nor hope that you can have faith, if you 
will not join the Church." Q 6 Discourses to Mixed Con- 
gregations," p. 283.) 

In the next chapter, I purpose to give a general view 
of Infallibility, to say what it means, and what it is not. 



GENERAL VIEW OF INFALLIBILITY. 



213 



CHAPTER XI. 

General View of Infallibility : what it is, and what 
it is not. 

THE Catholic Eule of Faith, which I have endeavored 
to bring out clearly in the preceding chapters, is 
so reasonable in itself, and so admirably snited to develop 
Divine Faith, and sustain this supernatural virtue, that 
the wonder is, it does not at once commend itself to all 
thoughtful Christians. The Rule is simply this : we are 
to believe, without doubt or hesitation, whatever God 
asks us to believe ; and we learn what He wishes us to 
believe from the teaching of a living and speaking guide, 
which, by the ever-abiding assistance of the Holy Ghost, 
cannot lead us astray. 

This plan at once settles all controversy ; is suited to 
all capacities, involves no long and laborious search, that 
might seriously interfere with the ordinary duties of life, 
and binds all who accept it in the bonds of the closest 
unity : why then is it rejected by non-Catholic Christians ? 

There are many reasons, but the chief are, that it 
requires a belief in the supernatural; and that it is 
directly opposed, not to reason, but to the pride of reason. 

I mean, before I enter on the subject of the Infallibility 
of the Church, and the personal Infallibility of the Head 
of the Church on earth, each of which will form the 
subject of a distinct chapter, to examine these motives 
which chiefly influence the human mind in its rejection 
of Infallibility. 



214 GENERAL VIEW OF INFALLIBILITY. 

The belief in the presence of a supernatural guidance 
is the main difficulty. If men could be brought to 
believe that this is possible, it would be comparatively 
easy to calm down the irritation and resistance of pride. 

Protestants say — " How by any possibility can weak, 
sinful, and erring mortals be miraculously led by the 
Spirit of God?" 

The answer is obvious. God, if it pleases Him, may 
so enlighten them, that they cannot err. It might per- 
haps be argued, that such positive control would be 
destructive of human liberty; the man so enlightened 
could not sin. The privilege would involve something 
like the preposterous idea of Buddhism. Those gifted 
with Infallibility should be incarnations of the Deity. 

Objections of this sort are almost too silly and irrever- 
ent to be answered seriously. Yet as such notions are 
rather insinuated, than urged, against Infallibility, by 
men in high positions, who are looked up to as profound 
authorities on these matters, it may be well to notice 
them. 

I see, in the Introduction to " England and Christen- 
dom," that the late Dr. Pusey allowed himself to stoop 
to the low profanity of insinuating that Catholics be- 
lieved, " that there was a quasi-hypostatic union of the 
Holy Ghost with each successive Pope — a sort of Llama- 
ism." 

I would only say, in reply to this monstrously absurd 
charge or insinuation, in the words of the learned Car- 
dinal, " If any one can mistake ' assistance ' for ' union,' 
it is to be feared that he must be unconsciously Nesto- 
rian." Most Christians know that ISTestorius, condemned 
by the General Council of Ephesus, a.d. 431, denied that 
the Divine Word was really made flesh in the womb of 



GENERAL VIEW OF INFALLIBILITY. 215 



the Yirgin Mary. There was, he admitted, a sort of 
union of the Godhead with the manhood ; but he de- 
nied that there was a hypostatic or personal union. It is 
most probable that theologians of Dr. Pusey's school 
may, if they admire the profaneness of their leader, 
quoted above, have just as foggy notions of the Incarna- 
tion, as they have of the Infallibility. As Cardinal Man- 
ning puts it, " It is to be feared that the hypostatic union 
of the second Person with our manhood amounts, in the 
minds of such theologians, to little more than the union 
of assistance." (Introduction, lxxxii.) 

But probably the public would attach much more im- 
portance to the other part of the objection — that which 
supposes that constrained sinlessness is involved in the 
supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

Let those who attach any weight to this difficulty re- 
member that Caiphas, even at the time he was foremost 
in compassing the death of Christ, was, in virtue of his 
office as High-Priest, the living interpreter of God's law 
to the J ewish people, inspired and guided by the Holy 
Ghost. He told the Council, that " one man should die 
for the people." And St. John adds, "This he spoke 
not of himself : but being the High-Priest of that year, he 
prophesied that J esus should die for the nation" (John 
xi. 50, 51). 

Balaam prophesied, yet he was not sinless at the time 
of his prophecy. 

There is involved in the correct notion of infallibility, 
nothing like forced or constrained sanctity. The Pope 
is not regarded by any Catholic as different from other 
men in all that concerns free-will and the power of doing 
wrong, and sinning against his conscience. The Holy 
Father goes to confession, as any bishop, or priest, or 
other Catholic. 



216 GENERAL VIEW OF INFALLIBILITY. 



No doubt there are special graces attached to his posi- 
tion ; as there are, according to the teaching of Catholic 
theology, to every office and charge to which God may 
call any individual. But personal sinlessness has nothing 
to do with Infallibility. Catholics venerate the Holy 
Father, and most joyfully pay him every mark of respect- 
ful homage which is due to his high office. But they 
pray for him, when it is the will of God to send him 
trials and persecution, just as did the early Christians 
when the first Pope, St. Peter, was in prison, — " Peter 
therefore was kept in prison. But prayer was made with- 
out ceasing by the Church of God for him" (Acts xii. 5). 

It never enters into their minds to make him a sort 
of Divine and sinless person. As Visible Head of the 
Church, he feeds " the lambs and sheep" of the one Fold ; 
rules the whole flock ; and by Divine appointment, guid- 
ed by the Holy Ghost and assisted by this Holy Spirit, 
" confirms the Faith of his brethren." 

The objection has naturally led me to say this much 
here on the personal Infallibility ; I will now return to 
the general subject. 

The difficulties I have just noticed, are as nothing when 
compared to that which rises in the minds of non-Catho- 
lics, from the materialism of this age of steam and electric 
progress. 

In the conceit generated by the quasi-annihilation of 
space and time, and the subjugation of the elements and 
the genii of mechanism of every shape and form to the 
will of man, there rises up a spirit that mocks the bare 
idea of anything supernatural. "Whatever cannot be seen 
or felt or fashioned into shape, has no real existence in 
the minds of this busy generation that ignores the Church 
of God. 



GENERAL VIEW OF INFALLIBILITY. 217 

" There can be little doubt," says Cardinal Manning, 
" that disbelief and exclusion of the supernatural in re- 
ligion represents the mind and tendency of the majority 
of English laymen. The material habits of English so- 
ciety make it especially susceptible of a Christianity with- 
out mysteries, and a faith which is only coextensive with 
Naturalism." 

If belief in the supernatural had completely departed 
from the minds of non-Catholics it would be beyond all 
hope to make the least impression on the public mind, 
by even the strongest arguments, in favor of Infallibility. 
As well might you attempt to prove the fact of a miracle 
to one who had made up his mind that miracles are an 
impossibility. Perhaps it would not be so difficult to 
convince a man of ordinary intelligence, who was j)olite 
enough to listen to argument without flying into a 
passion, that he was parting with his common-sense when 
he stupidly made up his mind to reject human testimony 
vested with the necessary conditions, as a motive of certi- 
tude. He might be brought to see that a fact is a fact, 
whether it belongs to the course of things known to us 
by experience or not. And that, where there is sufficient 
testimony to establish the existence of a fact, the fact 
must not, however extraordinary it may seem, be handled 
too rudely ; else consistent and logical reasoning will bring 
down in ruins the whole structure of human knowledge, 
and fill the mind with a desolating Pyrrhonism, destruc- 
tive to the reception and growth of any seeds of useful 
information. 

Probably under such pressure, the man who was ac- 
customed to scoff at miracles, might satisfy himself with 
giving expression to the well-known quotation from 
Hamlet, about the strange things "never dreamt of in our 



218 



GENERAL VIEW OF INFALLIBILITY. 



philosophy ;" and content himself- with saying, " Well, 
well — wonderful! What strange things do sometimes 
happen in this world of ours !" and drop the subject with- 
out venturing to assail the point directly. 

But when it comes to a dispute, not about an extraor- 
dinary fact, but about the whole system of the supernat- 
ural, and about the admission of this bugbear of modern 
thought into the serious consideration of men, as a prac- 
tical factor in their estimate of things, the case is very 
different ; and one scarcely knows how to secure even 
polite attention to what he has to say about it. 

Still, as I have intimated, belief in the action of the 
supernatural has not been quite relegated to the land of 
myths and shadows. There exists even yet, in most of 
the non-Catholic congregations or churches, a traditional 
belief in these " things which appear not," on which to 
build a substantial argument. " Protestants still believe," 
as Cardinal Manning says, " in the Eevelation of Chris- 
tianity, in the inspiration of Scripture, in the Divine 
certainty of dogmatic tradition, in the Divine obligation 
of holding no communion with heresy and with schism" 
(" England and Christendom," p. 130), and though this 
refers mainly to the Anglo-Catholic body, there is per- 
haps a more lively faith in supernatural influence amongst 
"Wesleyans and others, than in the Anglican Church itself. 

Those who ground their faith, such as it is, on Pietistic 
notions, and believe in the subjective working of the 
Holy Spirit, in prayer, and in the sensible testimony of 
peace-giving assurances from the Lord and Life-giver; 
and imagine that they see and feel the action of a kind 
and never-sleeping Providence in the ordinary affairs of 
life, all these must be open to reasoning derived from 
this supernatural source, or intimately connected with it. 



GENERAL VIEW OF INFALLIBILITY. 219 



And so, I have some hope, that what I have to say on 
the possibility of Divine and supernatural guidance ever 
existing in the Church, which is to teach all nations to 
the end of time, may not be absolutely profitless. 

I would, however, set this point before the minds of 
even the most materialistic of my readers, a point touched 
upon in the fifth chapter of this book, that if there be 
evidence of one supernatural action on the minds of men, 
the whole argument, founded on the alleged impossibility 
of such action, at once collapses. 

I pointed to one fact admitted by Christians, and held 
by them as the strongest support of Faith, the fact that 
there have been prophets, and that their prophecies, ful- 
filled in every detail, regarding contingent events, abso- 
lutely beyond the reach of human knowledge, proves 
beyond a doubt that the Spirit of God, which " breathes 
where it lists," can guide fallible men to infallible declara- 
tions. What is possible once, may be perpetuated ; what 
it has pleased the spirit of truth to effect, not once but 
frequently in the past, for the welfare of mankind, may 
be repeated : and hence there is nothing conceivably im- 
possible in the doctrine of Infallibility. 

Once this point is established, men of good-will may 
reason calmly on the claim of the Catholic Church to this 
supernatural guidance. 

I take then this ground : Our Divine Eedeemer cer- 
tainly could, if He so willed it, have provided those whom 
He commissioned to teach all nations His Divine Mes- 
sage, with such a gift as supernatural inerrancy ; and 
have, by a special intervention of His Providence, secured 
them and their successors in the ministry to the consum- 
mation of the world, supernatural and infallible assist- 
ance. 



220 GENERAL VIEW OF INFALLIBILITY. 



Considering that it was His blessed will, and most 
earnest desire, that those who " through their preaching 
were to believe," should be most closely united in the 
bonds of peace and charity ; and that no means could, 
as far as human reason can judge, be more suited to pro- 
duce this result ; that any other means, such as individual 
inspiration of the members of the Church, and pious 
reading of the written "Word, would have produced, the 
very opposite effects — quarrels, divisions, and sects with- 
out number, it follows that he ought, as far as we can use 
such an expression in reference to God, to have adopted 
this means. 

There can be no doubt that He promised this infallible 
guidance, in the pledge of His abiding presence with the 
teaching body, and by the assurance of the Paraclete or 
Comforter, to teach them all truth to the end of time. 
Therefore, I conclude, He did actually confer on the men 
legitimately called and appointed to this office this in- 
estimable privilege. 

The whole argument is summed up in the words of an 
eminent Christian Doctor of times long past — " P? i omisit, 
potidt, deditP " He promised it, He could fulfil his 
promise, and it was proper that He should ; therefore 
He did actually give it." 

I maintain that there can be no more lucid argument 
than this, when it is viewed in itself. As I said before, 
I do not mean to pursue the argument to its application. 
I have no desire, in a work like this, to involve myself 
and my readers in the polemical dust raised by the con- 
flicts of the last three hundred years. Those who side 
with the rebellion against the Divine authority of the 
Church, at the period of the so-called Keformation, may, 
if they cannot help it, as in truth they cannot, spend their 



GENERAL VIEW OF INFALLIBILITY. 221 



lives in this unprofitable labor of twisting and perverting 
history, to show that the clear promises of Christ did 
actually fail ; and that the simple faithful, who, with the 
docility of children to a kind and bountiful father, trusted 
in these promises, were the victims of misplaced confi- 
dence ; and that there is consequently nothing before 
earnest and anxious Christians, all through their life- 
time, but harrowing doubts, perplexities, and misgiv- 
ings. 

I cannot join issue with this theory, aud thus aid in 
keeping up this unprofitable and miserable strife. They 
who are bound by their false position to cling to it " like 
grim death" may, if it so pleases them, devote them- 
selves to the never-ending work of critical analysis. Per- 
haps there may be something soothing in the process, for 
individuals whose conscience is troubled by the possi- 
bility of being allied to revolt against legitimate authority. 
But it can hardly interest the general public to wade 
through the wide expanse of these shallow waters, in search 
of some proof or other that our Divine Lord violated His 
solemn word, and that they are therefore justified in per- 
petuating the miseries of all uncharitableness. 

I have made up my mind not to heed these arguments 
derived from prejudiced and hostile historians. It would 
be a mere waste of time. They who watch contemporary 
events, and see how facts are colored and distorted to 
make them suit the interests of a party or gratify malig- 
nant feelings, may know very well what reliance is to be 
placed on the stories of scandalous corruptions, and 
tyranny, and plotting and lying, and all the other abomi- 
nations brought forward by the enemies of the Catholic 
Church from the testimony of her most bitter and deter- 
mined opponents, in the old days, when the " Odium 



222 GENERAL VIEW OF INFALLIBILITY. 



Theologicum" poisoned the sources of Christian charity 
and maddened the. fevered passions of those who hated 
the Spouse of Christ. 

The study of these precious documents, filled in every 
page with rancorous abuse and slander, scarcely veiled 
with the flimsy web of Pharisaical righteousness, is too 
much for the tranquillity of soul in serious Christians, 
who earnestly desire, " as far as it is possible, and as 
much as is in them, to have peace with all men" (Rom. 
xii. 18). The angry spirit engendered by the analysis of 
these tales of burning hatred and fierce accusation, asso- 
ciated in the mind of the reader with scenes of madden- 
ing discord and bloody strife, is near akin to the blind 
zeal and unrestrained fury which once clamored for the 
crucifixion of our Divine Lord. Well did He prepare 
His Church for such assaults as these when He said to 
the first teachers of His gospel, " Blessed shall you be 
when men shall hate you, and shall reproach you, and 
cast out your name as evil for the Son of man's sake. Be 
glad in that day, and rejoice : for behold your reward is 
great in Heaven" (Luke vi. 22, 23). 

One must often think of these consoling words, as 
weak human nature feels, in reading these calumnies, the 
lasting proof of the world's hatred towards the work of 
Christ. " If the world hate you, know ye that it hated 
Me before you" (John xv. 18). When these things 
take the place of sound argument, built on principles 
admitted by all men, it is much better, in the interests of 
charity, to let them be. The investigation of them dis- 
turbs one's own peace of mind ; and whatever he may 
say in reply must necessarily outrage the despotic claims 
of free thought and private judgment. Hence I mean 
to keep strictly to the argument a priori, and to leave 



GENERAL VIEW OF INFALLIBILITY. 



223 



the solution of historical difficulties to simple and un- 
bounded confidence in the promises of Christ. 

The other great reason which stands in the way of the 
acceptance of infallibility is what I call the pride of 
reason, or the supposed rights of individual judgment. 
Non-Catholics say, " God has given us reason, and we are 
bound, as reasonable beings, to exercise this priceless gift. 
It would be degrading to surrender it to any human 
authority. We will therefore judge for ourselves, and 
follow the course that seems to us best, whatever Priest 
or Bishop or Pope may say to the contrary. We are our 
own masters, and as long as we commit no offence against 
society, that will deservedly strip us of our liberty, we 
are determined to cling to this inalienable right." 

But those who thus pride themselves on the free exer- 
cise of their judgment, are, unconsciously perhaps, yet 
nevertheless positively, if they adopt any religious pro- 
fession, the real slaves of the fallible opinions of others. 
There is not one in a million who has the ability, or the 
time, or means of constructing a Philosophy of Keligion, 
which he can honestly call his own. 

As the brilliant Lacordaire expresses it, — "EJiomme est 
un etre enseigne" — " Man is a being who is taught and 
the learned Dominican regards this as an incontestable 
proposition. And if man has no other teacher but one 
who is fallible like himself, or a number of men associated 
under the formularies of a sect or Church which disclaims 
Divine authority, he subjects himself to a teaching that 
can give him no security against error. He, in other 
words, binds himself to accept, as the rule of his life and 
the ground of his hopes hereafter, what may be a lie. 

This is the most degrading of all servitude ; it is the 
chaining up of the soul and its noble faculties, at the 



224 GENERAL VIEW OF INFALLIBILITY. 



word of an irresponsible despot. If a tyrant, who had 
the power of enforcing his commands by the penalty of 
death, insisted that a helpless subject should accept the 
religious views which pleased himself, the subject, who had 
the spirit of a real man, should rather die than profess 
to believe any doctrine opposed to his convictions. If 
he died, in consequence of his resistance to this unjust 
law, he would be a martyr to the cause of real liberty. 
He might not be a martyr to the cause of truth, for if he 
preferred his own fallible view to that of his oppressor, 
he might be only deceiving himself, and giving up his 
life for a mere whim or caprice of his own, as false and 
worthless as that pressed upon him. 

There can be no martyrs to truth but those who, like 
the millions who were faithful to the Church of Christ 
in the days of persecution, testified their fidelity by their 
blood. These trusted in the teaching of God, set before 
them by the Infallible Church. 

Theirs was a " reasonable service ;" and they are now 
happy forever with God, because they loved His blessed 
will above life itself. " If I should deliver up my body 
to be burned," says St. Paul, " and have not charity" — 
that is, the love of God above all things, and obedience 
to His law — " it will profit me nothing" (1 Cor. xiii. 3). 

Nevertheless, I say a man should rather die than basely 
yield his convictions, to accept, in place of them, what he 
believed was absolutely false. 

And yet this is what non-Catholics are doing every day 
of their lives, without the pressure of any persecution. 
They may say that the creed they profess is their own 
free choice, but a brief examination would show them 
that there was no choice in the matter at all, and that 
they belonged to a particular denomination, chiefly be- 



GENERAL VIEW OF INFALLIBILITY. 225 



cause they were brought up in it, and learned from the 
teaching of parents and ministers all that they believe. 

If private judgment mean anything real, those who 
cling to it in opposition to the Church of God, are sacri- 
ficing their own convictions to the teaching of a fallible 
and uncertain authority. 

It is as plain as that no two blades of grass are alike, 
that no two men, free to judge and choose for themselves, 
will be alike in all the objects of their choice. They will 
have their own views on religion as well as on any other 
subject ; and unless they are false to their profession of 
faith and loyalty in the creed of their particular sect, 
they must give np altogether their own religious notions, 
much as they may talk in praise of liberty, they are the 
slaves — the voluntary slaves of dogmatic error. 

They may say they differ with their parson, or with 
the conditions and formularies of their particular deno- 
mination ; but unless they have the courage of their con- 
victions and set up a religion for themselves, they do not 
really enjoy this boasted liberty of private judgment. 

The Christian world, outside the Catholic Church, 
broken up and divided as it is, would be ten thousand 
times more divided, in fact it would necessarily become 
a very Babel of confusion, if individuals were faithful 
to their imaginary rights, and believed just as they 
thought fit. 

It is folly to say that they agree with those of their 
own communion in fundamental points and all essentials, 
for who has a right to make such distinctions in matters 
of Revealed Religion? Whatever is contained in the 
written Word of God must be considered of supreme 
importance, by those especially who consider the inspired 
Scriptures to be their only Rule of Faith. 



226 GENERAL VIEW OF INFALLIBILITY. 

It is a veritable sham — this assertion of private judg- 
ment, unless a man stand alone, and become, as Paine 
taught, " his own church and his own minister." 

Suppose any man, who really has an opinion of his 
own on religious matters, worth calling an opinion, one 
that he has worked up from his own interior conscious- 
ness, and by really thinking for himself, and that this 
opinion is singular or peculiar, will he dare assert it 
openly % 

Suppose again that, acting bravely and consistently, as 
becomes one who glories in this liberty of thought, he 
takes the first favorable opportunity of declaring it in 
public ; he will soon find, that he must either hold his 
peace or cease to be a member of the sect from which he 
has dared to differ. There have been cases in the Cape 
Colony familiar to every colonist, as there are cases, all 
the world over, where even learned and able ministers 
have been virtually excommunicated, because they pre- 
sumed to think for themselves. If they were not rudely 
expelled, they were told pretty plainly that they had no 
right to eat the bread of the brethren, who considered 
they were strictly bound to conform to the prescribed 
articles of the sect. 

I say so much on this point to make it clear, that the 
prejudice which intellectual pride forms to itself, can be 
no real barrier to the acceptance of the Infallible Rule of 
Faith of the Catholic Church. 

The position of the Church is clear and unmistakable. 
She obliges all her children to be unius lahii, " of one 
mouth," and one profession, not because her creeds or 
her formularies are the compilation of the ablest scholars 
and the most learned men to be found in the world ; but 
because the inspired and infallible Church declares them 



GENERAL VIEW OF INFALLIBILITY. 227 



to be the sure and certain meaning of what God has re- 
vealed to us. 

She does not say, " Believe me, because I am instructed 
by the experience of eighteen hundred years; because 
the long list of Saints were my children ; because the 
most learned in every age have illustrated my teaching ; 
or for the sake of the memories of the glorious past ; or 
on account of the great names who have defended my 
doctrines ; or on account of the millions of martyrs, who 
have, in my service, confronted the tyrants of this World." 

But she says now, as she ever did, even in the first 
days of her existence, " Believe my word, for it is most 
infallibly and beyond all doubt, the very Word of God 
Himself : and 4 if an Angel from Heaven were to preach 
to you any other Gospel, let him be anathema' (Gal. 
i. 8). Hear my Yoice, and keep my word, or take the 
fate of the sensuous heathen and the reprobate." 

The Catholic Church does not teach her children that 
they may pick and choose for themselves out of the doc- 
trines she sets before them by Divine Commission ; but 
she speaks " as one having authority," and she says, " If 
you reject one article of this everlasting Gospel, you will 
become guilty of all ; you will, by a deliberate act of this 
kind, shatter in your soul the very foundation of Divine 
Faith ; for every tittle of this doctrine rests equally on 
the Infallible Word of God, which I infallibly announce 
to you." 

Surely there can be nothing unworthy of man in obey- 
ing the command of his sovereign Lord and Master, his 
Creator and His Judge. But who does not see that noth- 
ing can be more degrading to man's true liberty and self- 
respect than to be bound irrevocably to the uncertain and 
doubtful teaching of fallible men. 



228 



GENERAL VIEW OF INFALLIBILITY. 



Infallibility is not, as has been so often falsely and 
foolishly asserted, the enslavement of our reason and 
common-sense. The Church, in her definitions, does not 
go beyond the " Deposit of the Faith," once for all con- 
fided to her keeping. She never dreams of entering as 
an infallible teacher upon the domain of secular knowl- 
edge, or defining doctrine as a matter of Divine Faith on 
any subjects not revealed, that are within the reach of 
the human intellect. 

Here we need no infallible guide to direct our steps : 
if we err in matters of this kind, we can be corrected by 
the learning and experience of others. 

She explains only and develops, according to the wants 
of her children, what is "the substance of things hoped 
for, the evidence of things that appear not." 

Here only, where no human learning or experience 
could help us in the least, she is our faithful guide and 
teacher ; ever ready to warn where there is danger of 
error ; ever, like the wise householder, bringing out of 
the vast treasury of the knowledge wherewith the Holy 
Ghost inspires her, — " new things and old." If she re- 
quires our entire and undoubting consent to mysteries 
that are above our comprehension, it is only because she, 
with infallible certainty, teaches us the correct meaning 
of the Divine message. 

" Believe these things," she says, " though you cannot 
understand them. Honor God by your confiding trust. 
Accept them without doubt or hesitation, because they 
are the truths which the Infinite has been pleased to tell 
us about that Divine nature, which must be beyond the 
reach of all human knowledge or comprehension. 

In the next chapter I will deal more definitely with 
this important question of Infallibility. 



THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHUECH. 229 



CHAPTEE XII. 

The Infallibility of the Catholic Church. 

HEN I said, in the last chapter, that the existence 
of an Infallible guide is the simplest, and most direct 
means of securing unity in the believing body, I did not 
forget the clever argument of the late Dr. Whately 
on the subject. It amounts to this — that when disputes 
first arose amongst Christians, in the very days of the 
Apostles, it was seen and felt by the teachers that there 
was necessity for some tribunal that would pronounce 
with authority, and determine the true doctrine ; that this 
feeling created a disposition to find in Scripture, some 
foundation for the existence of such a tribunal ; and that 
in this way, the texts on which Catholics mainly rely for 
proof of Infallibility in the teaching Church, or as it is 
called by schoolmen, active Infallibility, were brought 
forward to support the imaginary and desirable claim. 

This is indeed an ingenious, but not a satisfactory way, 
of accounting for the belief of the whole Catholic world 
in the Infallibility of the Church. 

If an authority gifted with the power of silencing 
disputes, and definitely settling them by its Jlat, were, as 
the learned Archbishop contended, the fatal enemy of 
anything like gospel truth, and there was a strong ten- 
dency in human nature, or as he puts it — " a craving 
after" such dogmatic ruling, we should no doubt have 
been warned against it in the sacred Scriptures. 

But the testimony of Scripture is all the other way. 




230 THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



In the prophecies of the Old Testament relating to the 
future Church, she is represented to us, as ruling with a 
strong hand, ever protected by God, and ever triumphant 
over all her enemies. 

In the New Testament, we are assured that the powers 
of Hell shall never prevail against her, and that the 
Spirit of God would be always with her. This rather 
jars with the notion that true Christians were to be left 
entirely to their own interpretations of the written "Word, 
and were, according to the intention of the Divine 
Founder of the Church, to spend their lives " in searching 
the Scriptures," and disputing with one another about 
their true meaning. 

I mention this theory in the commencement of the 
chapter, for with most of our separated brethren it seems 
a foregone conclusion, that the Church, as Catholics 
understand it, was an abnormal growth, something that 
had its origin in the notions and prejudices and fancies 
of mankind ; when they had not the opportunities they 
now enjoy of reading the Bible, and judging for them- 
selves. 

If one would try to picture to himself the state of 
things in the early days of Christianity, as Bible-readers 
who hold to the all-sufficiency of Scripture love to imagine 
it, it would assume something of this form. Every little 
group or family of believers had a copy of the sacred 
text to itself, and spent its days in hunting up fragmen- 
tary particles of sound doctrine ; and when occasions, as 
the Lord's Day, came round, it associated with other 
groups, and then, without control or order, each head of 
a family retailed its own experiences, then all joined in 
a happy prayer-meeting and in a hymn of praise. 

When I hear that passage of the Acts of the Apostles, 



THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 231 

xvii., 11th verse, quoted so constantly and with such 
entire satisfaction, as if the noble Bereans, who "were 
daily searching the Scriptures," were the only right 
Christians, and hear, as I have often heard, the mocking 
sneer of constant Bible-readers, at the bare mention of 
the teaching Church, I must come to the conclusion that, 
in the ideas of these enlightened Christians, the sketch I 
have just given is the one that is ever before them. 

It rather damages the pretty picture, however, when 
the stern fact is demonstrated, that there was no Bible 
then but the Old Testament ; and that the Jews of Berea 
were commended, above their countrymen of Thessa- 
lonica, because, instead of persecuting the Apostles, like 
these latter, they examined the prophecies and other 
texts quoted by the Apostles, in support of their right to 
teach and preach, as they were commanded by Christ. 

Dr. "Whately does not much repair the damage done 
to his interesting theory, when he founds an argument 
on St. Paul's address to the ancients of the Churches of 
Miletus and Ephesus, mentioned in the 20th chapter of 
the Acts, including the passage — " Take heed to your- 
selves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost 
hath placed you bishops to rule the Church of God, which 
He hath purchased with His own blood " (Acts xx. 28). 

There is something very like ruling and governing 
here ; and Divine authority, and the immediate action of 
the Holy Ghost, which favor much more the Catholic 
idea of a Church, than this popular notion derived from 
the example of the Bereans. 

Of course, Dr. Whately does not quote the address of 
St. Paul to the ancients, for the purpose of proving that 
the Apostles taught with Divine authority, but, on the 
contrary, to show that when St. Paul warned them against 



232 THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

" the ravening wolves," he said nothing about Infallibility. 

If the Apostle did not use the word, he certainly 
implied all that is signified by it. If the Holy Ghost 
had placed these Bishops " to rule the Church, 5 ' He wonld, 
as our Divine Lord had promised, in some way or other 
guide them also. And the people, who were to be taught 
by this Divine authority, could fully realize to them- 
selves that, if they followed their own favorite opinions 
on the doctrines of Christ, and despised and contemned 
the Bishops, they were not, by this conduct, simply 
despising men alone, but Him, Who sent them, and 
commissioned them to teach. 

As long as non-Catholics run away with these fanciful 
ideas of the nature of a Church, or the total absence of a 
teaching body, it is of course useless to say anything to 
them about Infallibility. They will hold to their own 
Pietist theory, that everything necessary to Faith is con- 
tained in the written Word ; and that the Holy Ghost 
gives every individual who searches the Scriptures, the 
meaning and sense that will profit him to salvation. 

I can easily imagine people of this school of thought 
losing temper when their pretty baby-house is knocked 
to pieces, and saying hotly to me — " Is not the Bible the 
Word of God ? Don't you admit this yourself % And 
therefore, if we read it, what do we want with a teaching 
Church, or any nonsense of the kind ? Why should men 
come between us and our God ? We can learn from the 
Holy Book our religion, just as well as any Church could 
teach it to us." 

It would scarcely improve their " frame of mind," if I 
went on to show them that there are many things " hard 
to be understood " in the Bible, and that the divisions of 
Christendom, and the dissensions of Christians, are all 



THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 233 

traceable to this belief in individual guidance by the Holy 
Spirit ; and that all are bound " to hear the Church" and 
obey those whom Christ sent to teach them, as they 
should obey Himself ; and that if they merely took out of 
the Bible what pleases their own fancy, they destroy, in 
their own regard, the very foundation of all certain Faith. 

I will not therefore dwell upon these sore points, but 
try briefly and clearly to show what is meant by the In- 
fallibility of the Catholic Church. When I have explained 
this point, I will answer some of the most popular objec- 
tions to it. 

As I have already intimated, a distinction is made by 
the schoolmen between active and passive Infallibility. 
The latter, which regards the whole body of the Faithful, 
the teaching as well as the taught, means that the multi- 
tude of believers can never be deceived, in the object of 
their belief ; they can never believe with Faith anything 
purporting to be revealed, which has not been actually 
revealed. Active Infallibility regards specially the teach- 
ing Church ; and means that they who succeed the Apos- 
tles, as teachers of religion, can never lead astray those 
who accept and follow their teaching. 

Passive Infallibility is, in some shape or form, admitted 
by almost every denomination of Christians. 

The Greek Church holds to it, as one of the strongest 
and most immutable points of Faith. Anglicans, not- 
withstanding the article which declares that particular 
Churches have erred, will hardly believe that the entire 
Church, visible and invisible, trunk and branch, could fall 
into error. "Wesleyans, and those who believe in the in- 
dividual guidance of the Holy Spirit, scarcely admit that 
earnest and sincere Christians, who invoke this light, can 
be deceived. 



234 THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



When it comes to the teaching body, or active In- 
fallibility, the difference between Catholics, and those 
who profess to be guided by their own individual judg- 
ment of Scripture, or by some human formularies, is 
marked and decisive. 

In the first place, there is not in other communions a 
well-recognized and acknowledged teaching body at all. 
I mean of course a living, speaking judge and interpreter 
of doubts and difficulties, and disputes and controversies. 

In the Greek Church, for instance, the pagan principle 
of blending the spiritual and temporal power in the per- 
son of the Emperor, making him " Imperator et Pontifex 
Maxiimis" — Emperor and High Priest, — which devel- 
oped itself more fully after the schism of Photus, in the 
ninth century, produced a state of lifelessness as regards 
dogmatic teaching. Beyond their heresy of the proces- 
sion of the Holy Ghost, they did not add to the crime of 
schism, that of inventing and teaching new doctrines, or 
venturing on the development of doctrines already re- 
ceived. Many as have been the efforts made to draw the 
Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Oriental Bishops in 
communion with him, to unite with the Anglican Church, 
they have sturdily resisted such invitations. They cling 
still to the belief in the seven Sacraments, the Holy 
Sacrifice of the Mass, the Real Presence, the honor to be 
paid to the Holy Mother of God, Purgatory and prayers 
for the dead, and other doctrines, which, by the articles of 
the Church of England, are excluded from the creeds and 
formularies of Anglican belief. " Immobility and super- 
stitious attachment to exterior forms" are, according to 
the article in Goschler on this subject, " the chief charac- 
teristics of the Greek and Oriental Church." Since the 
erection of the Russian Patriarchate in 1589, and the in- 



THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 235 

stitution of the Holy Synod of St. Petersburg in 1721, 
learned Greek ecclesiastics would be rather shy of ap- 
pealing to the mother Church of Constantinople, for dog- 
matic declarations concerning either Faith or Discipline. 

As regards the Anglican Church, though I do not wish 
to say one disrespectful word of this distinguished body 
of Christians, taking it with all its variations and diver- 
gencies of belief, from Anglo-Catholicism to extreme Lati- 
tudinarianism, I really do not know, nor can I find out 
by careful study, where the seat of authoritative teaching 
is fixed. 

Some say in the Archbishop of Canterbury ; others 
in the Privy Council; some in the Convocation of 
Bishops and clergy ; others in individual Bishops. And 
some High-Church clergymen, without the Episcopal 
dignity, maintain that it is fixed in their individual selves. 

The last view has been particularly noted by the chief 
organs of public opinion, in the fierce conflicts between 
"priests," as they call themselves, and their recognized 
Bishops, on matters connected with Bitual. At any rate, 
though each particular party, whether it be called " High" 
or " Low," " Broad " or " Harrow," may imagine it sees 
distinctly the Headship, and the " Magisterium" and the 
defining power where it lists, the public generally, and 
Christians who are not initiated into the mysteries of An- 
glican belief, fail to see where it actually resides. 

The other Christian bodies make no pretension to any 
dogmatic teaching, save what is contained in their constitu- 
tions and f ormularies. These of course being human in 
their origin, and therefore liable to error, can scarcely, 
even if they sufficiently explain themselves, be supposed 
to bind in conscience. No doubt they bind, as regards 
the privilege of Church membership. Any clergyman 



236 THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



who, under the influence of what he might believe to be 
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, would attempt to ex- 
ercise in public his supposed liberty of individual judg- 
ment, and " hold forth " in opposition to any doctrine 
laid down in the formularies, would soon find that he 
was making a grave mistake. 

But of course neither Rules, nor Constitutions, nor 
formularies, nor articles constitute what I am writing 
about, — a living, speaking, and supreme teaching body, 
who as "having authority' 3 from God, and guided by the 
Holy Ghost, is recognized as holding the place of those 
teachers, to whom our Divine Lord said — " He that 
heareth you heareth Me." 

In the Catholic Church, the teaching body, believed to 
be vested with this Divine authority, is manifest to every 
one. The Bishops with the Pope at their head are recog- 
nized by Catholics, all the world over, as the successors 
of the Apostolic College. 

And here, to prevent any ambiguity about the expres- 
sion the Church and the Catholic Church, arising from 
the determined effort of High-Church clergymen in ed- 
ucating their people to claim for themselves this enviable 
title of Catholic, I may as well say once for all, that 
when I use the expression "the Catholic Church," I 
mean the Church so easily recognized by the two notes 
applied to it by St. Augustine in the fourth century — 
" The Church spread throughout the world, and united 
to the See of Peter" (St. Aug. opp., torn. ii. pp. 119, 
120). 

These two notes are incommunicable ; and determine 
the exact meaning of St. Augustine's words, when he 
says that the name Catholic belongs exclusively to that 
Church which, "in the midst of heresies," has so held 



THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 237 

possession of it, that no other dare reasonably claim it 
(St. Augustine, torn, vi., Contra. Ep. Fund. cap. 4). 

Now, by the active Infallibility of the Catholic Church, 
I mean its supernatural prerogative of testifying the true 
Faith always ; of teaching and judging, without danger 
of error, all points relating to this true Faith. 

I do not mean to prove here that the Catholic Church 
actually enjoys this great prerogative. My object, in this 
book, is more to explain the Catholic Rule of Faith, and 
to show what it is, and what it is not ; and as this Eule 
of Faith rests mainly on the Infallibility of the teaching 
Church, to make it clear to every one, who cares to read 
this book, what is meant by this Infallibility. 

I will leave what is called Papal Infallibility for the 
next chapter. 

The teaching body in the Catholic Church consists of 
the Bishops, either gathered together in council, and so 
deciding a question by their vote, and the confirmation 
of the Holy See ; or scattered throughout the world, giv- 
ing in their adhesion to a certain doctrine. The Bishops 
are the lawful inheritors of the privilege conferred on the 
Apostolic college, of guiding, defining, and teaching, by 
the supernatural assistance of the Holy Ghost ; and con- 
sequently, without fear of error, all those things which 
Christ commanded the Apostles to teach. 

By the universal assent of the Church, Bishops are in 
this position; by the constant practice of the Church, 
they alone have a right to sit, as judges in council, where 
doctrine is to be defined or explained. 

Individual Bishops may err; but a council, convoked 
by the visible Head of the Church, the Pope, who is him- 
self a Bishop, and the Head over all the rest, and consist- 
ing of such a number as may be fairly said to represent 



238 THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

the Church, according to the estimate of the Church, 
summoned from all parts of the world, for the purpose of 
holding a council, and presided over by the Pope or his 
representatives — such a council, judging the questions 
regarding revealed truth submitted to it, and deciding 
them by its vote, and having this vote confirmed by the 
Pope, is, by the supernatural guidance of the Holy Ghost, 
free from all danger of error ; and constitutes what is 
ordinarily called the Infallible tribunal of the Church. 

The Faithful may receive such a decision with the same 
confidence, in its exact truth, as if they heard it from the 
lips of Christ Himself. 

Let it not be imagined for a moment, that the Bishops 
of the Church, either in council or dispersed, are always 
reviewing the Deposit of the Faith, or the body of truths 
confided to the teaching of the Apostles. 

The great body of revealed truth, nearly every article 
of the Catholic creed, has been defined ages ago. Certain 
rules were laid down for the guidance of the Faithful, 
even in the times when the Apostles met together, and 
declared that " it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to 
them," so to determine (Acts xv. 28). 

It is only when there are very grave disputes about the 
meaning of certain revealed doctrines, and the Faithful 
are much disturbed and anxious, or that some serious 
changes have to be effected in the Canon law, or disci- 
pline of the Church, that these great assemblies are held. 

I will show, in the next chapter, how the Church is 
armed to overcome error or improve discipline, when the 
errors or the danger threatened, do not seem to the Holy 
Father to require the tremendous effect given to His sim- 
ple decree, by the voice of hundreds of Bishops assembled 
in council. 



THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 239 

JSTow, when it is clearly understood that the subject of 
the decrees either of councils or Popes is confined to re- 
vealed doctrines, and to things connected with Faith and 
Morality ; and that no council or Pope decides a question 
without carefully inquiring into the teaching of the 
Church in former ages, on up to the very beginning, or 
as far as the doctrine is clearly marked in its develop- 
ment, and that, for this purpose, the decisions of previous 
councils, and the testimony of the most holy and learned 
writers of these past ages, are patiently examined, it must 
be evident to any non-Catholics who will use their com- 
mon-sense, that the Infallibility of the Church is not the 
dreadful thing it is often represented to be by the bigoted 
enemies of Catholicity. 

They might even be disposed to admit, that if all these 
precautions were taken, in order to obtain the correct 
meaning of a passage of Scripture, or for having a dogma 
of Faith determined, those who accepted such decision 
might rest perfectly satisfied that it was morally certain 
to be right. Apart even from any supernatural guidance, 
there would be, at least, all the certainty that men can 
have by natural means, afforded by such careful and 
patient investigation. 

It all comes to this, by the appointment and in accord- 
ance with the plan of Christ, and fortified by the realiza- 
tion of His promises of supernatural assistance, that the 
Catholic Church can never accept error for truth in re- 
ligion; and that the teaching body can never deceive 
those who have been commanded by our Divine Lord 
" to hear the Church." 

As I said before, more than once, I am not going to 
enter into the historical view of the question, involved in 
the Article of the Church of England — " Councils have 



240 THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



erred." There is prima facie evidence that they could 
not err, unless on the supposition that Christ made a false 
promise. There is equally clear evidence, that all who 
rebelled against the Divine Authority of the Church, at 
the time of the Reformation, or who have since, by their 
own mature judgment, abetted that rebellion, are bound 
to maintain, that the Church founded by Christ did actu- 
ally so err. For otherwise they could not have even the 
semblance of any ground to stand on. 

" The old Church must, somehow or other, have got 
rid of the assistance of the Holy Ghost, and gone astray 
in her Faith, or we cannot, without grievous crime, be 
where we are, in direct antagonism with it" — is all that 
Protestants can say, when they seriously consider their re- 
ligious position. 

Perhaps, seeing the magnitude of the interests in- 
volved, I may be allowed to put this position distinctly 
before them. I will use the words of Cardinal Manning 
for this purpose. The case as put by His Eminence is 
truly appalling for those who only think that they are 
safe, and who try to believe it to be their duty to abuse 
the oldest Church in Christendom. As His Eminence 
says, — " If the Church spread throughout the world and 
united to the Chair of Peter be the true Church, the cor- 
ollaries of this fact are severe, peremptory, and inevita- 
ble." " For," he continues, " if the Catholic Faith be 
the perfect revelation of Christianity, the Anglican Re- 
formation is a cloud of heresies ; if the Catholic Church 
be the organ of the Holy Ghost, the Anglican Church is 
not only no part of the Church, but no Church of Divine 
foundation. It is a human institution, sustained, as it was 
founded, by a human authority, without priesthood, 
without sacraments, without absolution, without the Real 



THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 241 

Presence of Jesus upon its altars." (" England and Chris- 
tendom," page 129.) 

And if this be the position of Anglicanism at its best, 
from a Catholic point of view, or in that form which is 
known under the name Anglo-Catholicism, where learn- 
ing, patient study, unmistakable earnestness, and blame- 
lessness of life are gathered together as in a focus, and 
outshine, by their combined brightness, the poor lights 
of the scorn and ridicule of an unbelieving world, — what 
is the position of those whose main hope of obtaining 
Heaven seems, from the intense earnestness with which 
it is cultivated, to be hatred of Popery, and everything 
connected with it ? 

The time, I believe, has come when what an American 
writer aptly calls " the frozen truth" must be laid before 
the public. 

We Catholics have borne patiently every reproach that 
could be flung at the worst forms of idolatry and blas- 
phemy. That does not matter much; for the enemies 
of our Divine Lord, who were zealous for the law, and 
the letter of Scripture, and the scrupulous observance of 
the Sabbath, and the inflexibility of human traditions, 
abused Him far more foully, than the " Saints " of the 
new Law abuse the children of the Church. 

But when one sees that the really honest and straight- 
forward, who want to serve God in all earnestness, are 
being driven into the arms of unbelief, by the unreality of 
sentimental cant, and the natural horror of hypocrisy, he 
feels that the time is come when, if he would escape the 
wrath denounced on "blind watchmen and dumb dogs 
not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving 
dreams" (Isaias Ivi. 10), he must speak out, and say to 
the public what he believes in his heart, and before God, 



242 THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



to be " the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the 
truth." 

I know well that this is an invidious task ; and that 
what I am writing may wound long-cherished prejudices, 
irritate imaginary righteousness, and excite against my- 
self, not indeed hatred, for I suppose a Bishop of the 
" Church of Antichrist" will be, as more nearly related 
by his office to this arch-enemy of our Divine Lord, 
thought deserving only of ridicule, contempt, and scorn. 
But this does not matter much, if I please God in the 
honest discharge of my duty : and I will trust to Him for 
forgiveness if, by awakening such feelings, I have unwit- 
tingly transgressed the blessed law of Charity. 

I now come to the objections — not the objections 
fouaded on supposed historical evidence against the 
Infallibility, but those which are popularly believed to 
upheave the principle itself. 

And, first, I notice the old argument, so well known to 
every tyro in theology. "Infallibility," say our oppo- 
nents, " rests altogether on that fallacy called in logic a 
" vicious circle." " You Catholics," they say, " prove this 
point by the testimony of the Inspired Scriptures ; and 
then you prove the Inspiration of the Scriptures by the 
Infallibility of the Church." 

The answer is so plain that the wonder is, how this 
objection has not been long ago relegated to the region 
of mists and shadows. 

If I am arguing with Protestants, who believe in the 
inspiration of Scripture, I say : " Look to these sacred 
Scriptures, where you think to have life everlasting" 
(John v. 39), and there you will see clearly and distinctly 
laid down the proofs of what I claim for the teaching 
Church and for the whole body of the Faithful. " Un- 



THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 243 

less you will hear the Church," you class yourself with 
reprobates (Matt, xviii. 17). St. Paul, speaking for 
himself and his fellow-laborers in the work of teaching, 
says : " We are therefore ambassadors for Christ, God, as 
it were, exhorting by us" (2 Cor. v. 20). So that they 
who hear the Apostles, and those who inherit their office, 
hear Him (Luke x. 16). Christ promises His lawfully 
appointed teachers, to the end of time, His guidance and 
assistance (Matt, xxviii. 20). He promises them, more- 
over, the Spirit of Truth to abide with them always (John 
xiv. 16, 26). If He is faithful to the promises, it is incon- 
ceivable how the teaching Church can deceive those who 
hear it. If the Jews were bound to receive the word of 
Christ and His Apostles without doubt or questioning, it 
is hard to see why Christians should not. There is 
evidently no " vicious circle" here. 

If I am addressing unbelievers, I point to the Scrip- 
tures simply as authentic records, like any other history, 
and I say, read there what Christ promised, and mark 
the fulfilment of these promises, in the establishment of 
the Church, by the preaching of the poor ignorant fisher- 
men. 

See how these men, without learning or any footing in 
society, changed the face of the world ; note how, " by 
the foolishness of their preaching," they overcame the 
power of pagan philosophy, and the might of pagan 
immorality ; see how they subdued, with the same 
facility, the fierce opposition of barbarism; mark the 
sanctity of the lives of those who overcame all opposition 
by their martyrdom. These things are as well to be 
found in profane history, as in the Scriptures. A won- 
derful revolution, such as no mere human power could 
possibly effect, was effected just as Christ predicted. 



244 THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

His work was therefore Divine ; and consequently you 
can believe in His plain and explicit promises. 

Then, probably, our Christian friends will object — 
" But your Church never, in the beginning, said anything 
about Infallibility ; and the doctrine is not laid down as 
a matter in which Catholics should believe." 

I say, granted; but the teaching Church acted as if 
she fully believed she was endowed with inerrancy of 
teaching. The teaching body said to those who opposed 
their doctrine, " Anathema, 55 just as St. Paul pronounced 
an anathema even against an angel, if this Spirit from 
above presumed to teach any other Gospel. 

There was no necessity, in the ages of Faith, to define 
what every Christian knew. It was only when men be- 
came full of their own conceits about their private judg- 
ment, and their superior knowledge, that the Church was 
obliged to speak out plainly. 

The Council of the Yatican has settled this point, not, 
indeed, to the gratification, but rather to the savage in- 
dignation, of the philosophers of the nineteenth century. 

" But your Infallibility is after all built on rationalism, 
or founded on reason. In the Catholic Church, as well 
as in any other Church, you must go back to the same 
starting-point ; and how can that be infallible in the con- 
clusion which is confessedly fallible in the premises ? 55 

The answer is brief, plain, and simple enough to be 
caught at once. Reason does its part as far as reason 
can go : it leads us, as it were, to the feet of God, by the 
motives of credibility which it furnishes, and then God 
Himself speaks through His appointed guides. The 
supernatural accomplishes what is beyond the power of 
the natural man however highly gifted. Thus " Faith, 55 
Divine supernatural Faith which excludes all doubt, 



THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 245 

" cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of 
Christ" (Rom. x. 17). 

"But this Infallible guide is inaccessible. How are 
we to go to Rome, in order to learn our Faith, and to 
know what we are to believe, when we are perplexed ?" 

I answer, you need not go to Rome : any priest can 
teach you. Nay, more : any authorized penny Catechism 
will tell you plainly what the true doctrine is. If you do 
not understand what has been written to suit the com- 
prehension of children, ask the nearest priest and he will 
explain it to you. 

" But this priest may deceive me. He is, as regards 
me, precisely in the position of a Protestant minister to- 
wards those who look to him for instruction." 

By no means : the priest is in a different position alto- 
gether. He teaches, not what he judges is the meaning 
of the Word of God, nor what he finds laid down in fal- 
lible human formularies, but what he has learned from 
the Infallible Church. You can safely trust him and 
have faith in his word. No priest, however ignorant, 
will dare to teach you anything different from what every 
Catholic child and every layman knows. 

There are indeed certain points connected with the 
false and deceitful teaching of crafty men, who will not 
hear the Church; and to understand these clearly would 
require some acquaintance at least with the elements of 
theology. But these questions do not concern men of 
good will ; and should they ever present themselves as 
difficulties and perplexities in the way of a fairly-instructed 
and earnest Catholic, his Catholic instincts, I may say, 
will guide him safely. The whole body of Catholic doc- 
trine is so knit together, and one dogma so naturally, one 
might almost say, springs from another, that the good 



246 THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

Catholic feels at once that there is a jarring and confu- 
sion whenever a heretical notion creeps into his mind. 

The priest or the Catechism will tell you all about the 
unity and trinity of God, the Incarnation, Death, and Re- 
surrection of the Saviour, about the eternity of bliss 
hereafter, and "the everlasting fire;" about the Real 
Presence, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the seven 
Sacraments, and Purgatory, and all the other articles of 
Catholic Faith. 

If you can imagine to yourself a priest either so stupid 
or so wicked as to try to lead you astray, you have only 
to tell some Catholic neighbor your suspicions, and if 
you satisfy him that the priest told you, for example, that 
there was no Hell or no Purgatory, or that Christ was not 
really present in the Blessed Sacrament, you would soon 
hear such a rumpus as would astonish you. You would 
quickly understand, by the immediate appearance of the 
Bishop on the scene, that not only the teaching body in 
the Catholic Church cannot err, but that the whole 
Church, even the little ones of Christ, are by the tradi- 
tions of the Faith perfectly secure from error. 

It is useless to dwell further on these and similar ob- 
jections. The Infallibility of the Church is a fact, not 
only momentous, but intimately known to every Catholic 
who is worthy of the name. 

I cannot better conclude this chapter than with the 
promise of God for this perpetual guidance of the 
Church, so consoling to every Catholic heart, given in 
the inspired words of Isaias : 

" This is my covenant with them" (those who shall live 
after the days of the promised Redeemer and keep His 
word). " Saith the Lord : My spirit that is in thee, and 
my words that I have put into thy mouth, shall not de- 



THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 247 

part out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, 
nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, 
from henceforth and for ever" (Isaias lix. 21). 

In the next chapter, I will briefly explain what is meant 
by Papal Infallibility. 



248 INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE, 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Infallibility of the Pope. 

TDEFORE I enter upon this most interesting and 
much controverted question, I wish to say again, 
that I do not undertake to prove the point, or to establish it 
on historical grounds in this book : but merely to explain, 
in a way suited to the reading of the general public, what 
it means. 

I think it will not be difficult, once the Infallibility of 
the Church is fairly understood, to show, on purely logi- 
cal reasoning, that the Infallibility of the living Head of 
the Church on earth is a necessary consequence of the 
Infallibility of the living body, whether teaching or 
taught. The proofs of the doctrine would, even in the 
most abridged form, occupy an entire treatise ; and the 
historical aspects of the question would fill several vol- 
umes. Still I hope to be able, even in the limits of one 
chapter, to establish the principles which will enable in- 
genuous and unprejudiced readers, to see how ordinary 
objections, founded either on reason or Church history, 
such as are trusted in by the opponents of the Catholic 
Church, may be answered in a satisfactory manner. 

It will be the simplest way to lay down at once the 
Definition of Papal Infallibility, as pronounced by the 
Vatican Council. 

The following is the decree : " We teach and define 
that it is a dogma divinely revealed : That the Roman 
Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, — that is, when, in 



INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 



249 



the discharge of his office of Pastor arid Teacher of all 
Christians, by virtue of his supreme Apostolical authority, 
he defines a doctrine regarding faith and morals, to be 
held by the Universal Church, — is, by the Divine assist- 
ance promised him in Blessed Peter, possessed of that 
Infallibility with which the Divine Kedeemer willed that 
the Church should be endowed in defining doctrine re- 
garding faith or morals ; and that therefore such defini- 
tions of the Poman Pontiff are of themselves, and not 
from the consent of the Church, irreformable." 

There are many arguments derived from the position 
given by our Divine Lord to St. Peter amongst his col- 
leagues in the Apostleship, of any of which the Infallibil- 
ity of his successors might be rendered clearly intelli- 
gible. 

Thus, according to the unanimous consent of the 
Fathers of the Primitive Church, and to the admission of 
the most strenuous ojDponents of Papal Infallibility, hold- 
ing that the whole Church cannot err, the successors of 
St. Peter form, like the Apostle himself, the centre of 
Unity in the Church. All Catholics admit this, and have 
ever admitted it ; and no party amongst them ever called 
it into question. 

And as Catholic Unity rests on the visible unity of 
Faith, or the oneness of the visible external profession 
made by believers, the Pope is the centre of the external 
profession of the Catholic Faith. 

If, under any circumstances, the Pope could fall into 
error in his external profession of the Faith, the foun- 
dation of Unity in the Church would necessarily fail, and 
the perfect oneness of the Church which Christ estab- 
lished in her, on the model of the Holy Trinity, would 
be broken. 



250 INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 



In the same way, an argument may be derived from 
the supremacy of St. Peter over the other Apostles. By 
the clear teaching of the sacred Scriptures, and the unani- 
mous testimony of Catholic tradition, St. Peter was " to 
feed the lambs and sheep" (John xxi. 17). There is 
no use in heaping together texts, to prove a point on 
vv T hich there was never any doubt in the Catholic Church. 
He was to rule and govern, " to hold the keys," the em- 
blem of supreme power (Matt. xvi. 19), and thus to be, 
as supreme Puler, a principle of unity. Hence Christ 
rested the unity on the supremacy of the chief of the 
Apostles, and his successors; and therefore the visible 
unity of the Church and the Papal supremacy are not 
two distinct things, but different aspects of one and the 
same thing. 

If this be so, it clearly follows that the same power 
must be found in each ; and that a central authority, 
which was to be a bond of union, by the perfect oneness of 
the external profession of Faith made under and through 
that ruling power, could not be a fallible authority. 

St. Peter too was constituted the foundation, against 
which the powers of Hell should never prevail (Matt. xvi. 
18). He was to fulfil a function in the Church identical 
with that of the foundation of a building. The stability 
of the building depends mainly on the stability of the foun- 
dation. If the foundation gives way, the house must fall. 
Therefore Peter was to be the Pock of the Paith, and could 
never fail, even under the most violent assaults of error, 
figured by " the gates of Hell," to teach the one true 
Faith committed to his trust for all ages, even to the con- 
summation of the world. 

I merely call attention to these arguments, in passing. 
I do not mean to dwell on them and develop them. 



INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 



251 



But as I said, in the beginning, that the Infallibility of 
the living Head is intimately and necessarily involved in 
the Infallibility of the living body ; and as the preceding 
chapter fully explained the latter point, it will be much 
more simple to show how, naturally and logically, Papal 
Infallibility arises from the Infallibility of the Church. 

Starting from the point generally admitted by all 
Christians, that the whole Church of Christ cannot, in 
accordance with the plain and positive promises of its 
Divine Founder, fall into the deplorable position of accept- 
ing for the revealed truth, manifest error and doctrine 
absolutely false, I maintain that, if the living Head of 
the Church could, in the exercise of his office as universal 
teacher, propose false doctrines to be believed by the 
Faithful " spread throughout the world and united to the 
Holy See," then the whole Church would be bound to 
believe a lie. 

This is clear, if we keep to the essential elements of 
the figure under which the living Church is represented 
to us in the sacred Scriptures, and the writings of the 
early Fathers. The successor of St. Peter is the " Head 
and mouth-piece" of the living organism. By no strain- 
ing of the imagination can we picture to ourselves a 
speaking head cut off, and in conflict with the headless 
body. The bare supposition of such a monstrosity is 
directly opposed to a common-sense view of a teaching 
Church. 

The main efforts of Gallicanism or of the national 
Church of France, insidiously formed and nurtured, by a 
Court which had not the courage of the Tudor family in 
England, to separate, by a daring blow, a nation from 
the Fold of Christ, were directed to place the Holy 
Father in a state of isolation from the teaching body. 



252 INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 



But even the vast learning and attractive eloquence of 
Bossuet miserably failed in attempting to give life and 
energy to a creation so anomalous. 

His distinction between the Chair of Peter and the 
person who sat therein, is a blemish which even the most 
ardent admirers of " the Eagle of Meaux" can never ef- 
face. He tried, in opposition, it is feared, to his own 
convictions, to maintain this absurd distinction. 

The promise of Christ to Peter and to his successors, 
he argued, adhered to the Chair of Peter, and could never 
be broken. A link or two in the chain which bound the 
chief of the Apostles and his successors might, he said, 
fail, or seem to fail, in an unworthy Pope ; but the suc- 
cession would, sooner or later, repair the damage, and 
secure the integrity of the promises. 

A child of ordinary capacity might see that a supposi- 
tion of this kind must be fatal to the Divine pledge of per- 
petual assistance. A chain that might be so easily broken, 
and might continue unrepaired for an indefinite time, could 
never be relied upon to secure the bark of Peter from 
the violence of the tempests which, according to our 
Divine Lord, were to assail it ever and again, through all 
generations, either through the malevolence of the powers 
of Hell, or the hatred of the unbelieving world. 

It should be clearly understood, that neither Bossuet, 
nor any of the court party who rallied round him, ever 
doubted for a moment the Infallibility of the teaching 
Church. They only sought, through a dangerous com- 
promise, to secure the rights of the Church, fiercely 
threatened and assailed by the ambition of the civil 
power. But like all compromises where sound principle 
is involved, they neither satisfied the State nor saved the 
Grallican Church from the scourge of errors^ the effects of 



INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 



253 



which have been barely repaired in the present genera- 
tion. 

Jansenism, with its insidious poison, the most danger- 
ous that ever infected the vigorous life of the Church, 
has shown even unbelievers, in the wide spread of revolu- 
tionary principles, how difficult it is to arrest the growth 
of these germs of moral pestilence, which are secretly 
hatched and abundantly diffused, when the vigilant care 
of the Watchman, divinely appointed to guard the spirit- 
ual health of nations, has been rudely interfered with. 
Maret and " J anus" and their following, who left nothing 
undone that wily cunning, stimulated by offended pride 
of intellect, could suggest to mar the proceedings of the 
Yatican Council, well knew how to profit, in their unholy 
efforts, by the unsound principles which were involved 
in the Gallican articles of 1682. 

The arguments of these clever but misguided men 
were mainly directed to place the Holy Father in a posi- 
tion of hostility to the rest of the teaching body, which 
they strove to imagine could be sound and healthy and 
capable of performing all its functions, even when a head- 
less and consequently a lifeless trunk. Hence we hear so 
much of the ambition of the late supreme Pontiff, and 
the fatal blow which they would fain persuade the 
Catholic world has been inflicted on the judicial functions 
of the Episcopate by the Definition of Papal Infallibility. 

The arguments employed by them are so insidious, and 
at the same time, when they are properly understood, 
they bring out so clearly what is meant by the personal 
Infallibility of the successor of St. Peter, that I will dwell 
upon them for a moment. 

It is contended, by those who uphold the Gallican 
claims, that the Definition of the Yatican Council is de- 



254 INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 



structive of the powers of the whole Episcopate. " How," 
they say, " is it possible for the Bishops of the Catholic 
Church, the successors of the Apostles, commissioned 
like them to teach all truth, to judge what is truth, when 
there comes a conflict of opinions on matters of doctrine 1 
Of what use is their judgment when it can be dispensed 
with or superseded by a dogmatical decree, issued at his 
caprice by the Roman Pontiff And building on this 
foundation a lofty vantage-ground, they warn from its 
summit the civil powers of Europe, to beware of the 
fearful consequences to their just authority, when a Pope, 
filled with ambitious projects, commands, by a decree 
ex cathedra, the two hundred millions of Catholics to es- 
pouse his cause. 

It would seem, at first, that these wild ravings of 
slighted self-love had indeed produced an effect on the 
civil governments of Europe. This was foreseen by 
many of the Bishops assembled at the Council. They 
knew well that many of these governments would war 
against the Church if the decree of Papal Infallibility 
were once proclaimed. Hence they advised their breth- 
ren to be cautious. It was not because a few men like 
Bishop Maret, and Dr. Dollinger, and Pere Hyacinthe 
would give way to temper at seeing their pet theories 
demolished by the Definition, and say very bitter things 
against the Yicar of Christ ; but because they knew well, 
that the overwhelming and sudden blow to the deep 
schemes of the infidel ministers who were conspiring for 
the ruin of Christianity, would stir up these dangerous 
and unprincipled men to violent action against the lib- 
erties of the Church. 

Those Bishops therefore, guided by sound prudence, 
advised, that the Definition should be deferred until bet- 



INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 255 



ter times, when the machinations of the secret societies, 
directed by the infidel advisers of the ruling powers on 
the continent of Europe, being brought to light in all 
their hideous deformity, and their conspiracy against the 
Christian order of things fully exposed, there would have 
come about a healthy reaction. 

It was interesting to watch closely the scheming and 
artifices employed by the reckless opponents of Christi- 
anity to turn this voice of warning against the interests 
of the Church. The Bishops, it was declared by the 
infidel press all over the world, were divided in opin- 
ion on the question of Papal Infallibility. It was most 
unfortunate, said those writers, who always pretended to 
be influenced by an earnest desire to serve the old Church, 
that the party in the Council who were struggling for its 
liberties and the rights of the Episcopate were in a minor- 
ity. They declared continually that this minority would 
be forced, by threats of ecclesiastical censure, and the 
severe displeasure of the supreme Pontiff, to succumb 
to the Pope, and the greater crowd, who thought only of 
humoring the vanity of their despotic ruler. That there- 
fore the Yatican Definition, if it were carried, would be 
wanting in the essential element of a free acceptance by 
the Council ; that freedom of discussion and honest ex- 
pression of judgment were out of the question ; that con- 
sequently the Decree should necessarily be rejected by 
the Catholic world. 

But now that it has "seemed good to the Holy 
Ghost" to make, in spite of these threats and warnings, 
the Papal Infallibility a defined article of Catholic Faith, 
what do we see ? 

The personal Infallibility of the successor of St. Peter 
is the firm belief of the Catholic Bishops and Clergy and 



256 INFALLIBILITY OP THE POPE. 



Laity who are in communion with the Holy See, through- 
out the whole world. And what has the result of 
the exaggerated and utterly false significance given to 
the warnings of the "opportunists" proved? That 
never, in the history of the Church, was there a General 
Council in which there was more striking evidence of 
the perfect freedom of discussion, than in the Council 
of the Vatican. 

When we read the authentic records, we are amazed 
at the patience and calm consideration given to every 
view of those Bishops who, one after another, repeated 
the self- same opinions, abundantly refuted by the argu- 
ments, full of courage and manly eloquence, of the 
Bishops who rose in their estimate of things superior to 
all the threats and boastings of the powers of this world. 

It has proved, moreover, that the secret societies, not- 
withstanding their professed contempt and scorn for the 
Holy See, have felt the blow even in the very depths of 
their secluded conventicles. The cry of rage and fury, 
and the howl of indignation that went up from these 
secret abodes, and found expression in their favorite jour- 
nals throughout Europe ; filled the general public with 
astonishment — that these men who, in the pride of their 
secret power, threatened to overturn thrones and domi- 
nations, were maddened beyond the control of cautious 
prudence and cunning strategy, by the voice of the old 
man " who never dies and who, stripped of all that this 
world calls power, can yet, by the ever-abiding help of 
the Holy Spirit, direct the destinies of empires and 
kingdoms, and powers and principalities. 

When the few abettors of Gallicanism stir up its al- 
most unheeded " Declarations," and try to persuade the 
Catholic world that the Definition of Papal Infallibility 



INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 257 



is destructive to the judicial power of the Bishops, they 
know not what they say ; or they foolishly call public at- 
tention to the wise and prudent action of the teaching 
Church in all its dogmatic declarations. When they talk 
of a Pope overruling, by his caprice, the judgment and 
the decisions of the Episcopate, they seem to forget 
what every one, who studies these subjects even lightly, 
well knows, that no decree concerning the Faith of the 
universal Church is determined on, till it has been sub- 
mitted to the consideration of the Bishops all over the 
world. 

" According to Catholic principles," says Father Bot- 
talla, in his able work, " The Pope and the Church," " no 
definition of Faith can exist unless grounded on Apostolic 
tradition, and on the consent of the Churches" (Bottalla, 
p. 146). And again, he adds : " This is the reason why 
no theological doctrine can be defined as an object of 
Faith, until proof is given, either directly or indirectly, 
that the doctrine is derived by tradition from the Apos- 
tles : directly when it can be distinctly demonstrated, 
that the doctrine has always been held in the Church, 
and handed down from the beginning by the succession 
of Bishops ; indirectly, when it can be proved, that in 
any of the past ages, or in our own, it was, or is, held as 
a doctrine of faith by the greatest part of the teaching 
body in the Church. In that case, its Apostolical origin 
is deduced indirectly ; for without this origin no doctrine 
can be held as of faith by the body of the Church." 
And farther on : " No Pope, before deciding a doctrinal 
question, has ever dispensed with these investigations 
which are calculated to verify the true tradition of the 
Church, and to insure that the doctrine to be defined has 
really Apostolic origin. And no Pope will dispense with 



258 



INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 



the necessary inquiry on the subject ; for in the preroga- 
tive of infallibility is implied the fulfilment of all the 
conditions which are necessary for its exercise" (Bottalla, 
p. 147). 

This would seem quite sufficient to dispose of the view, 
that the Pope, when he pleases, may rush into a dogmatic 
ex cathedra declaration. 

When I see, in the public newspapers, the daring views 
hazarded on this subject, it seems to me that the editors 
are under the impression that the Holy Father may mis- 
take a fit of temper, or indigestion, or any sudden impulse 
that disturbs his soul or body, for an inspiration of the 
Holy Spirit; and may issue a dogmatic decree under this 
influence with the same readiness as these worthies forge 
their thunderbolts against rival editors, for the delectation 
of the local public. 

They may rest assured, and those also who rely confi- 
dently on the statements of these ephemeral productions, 
that " the Infallibility of the Church, and also that of the 
Pope, is the effect of Divine assistance, not of a super- 
natural inspiration, much less of revelation" (ib. 146). 

But it may be said — " Suppose the Pope sends his in- 
structions to the assembled or dispersed Bishops, and 
prejudices the question, and infallibly decides it; how, 
under these circumstances, can the Bishops be supposed 
to be judges of this particular doctrine ?" 

I reply, if the Holy Father sends mere instructions, 
these will not interfere with the freedom of discussion, 
because, even according to Cardinal Bellarmine, the great 
champion of Papal Infallibility, these are not properly in- 
fallible utterances of the Apostolic See. Even if the Pope 
actually defines a doctrine ex cathedra, before it is sub- 
mitted to them, the Bishops can exercise their judgment. 



INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 



259 



When they subscribe the declarations of previous Ecu- 
menical Councils that have been confirmed, and published 
by the Eoman Pontiff, which they generally do when 
assembled in Synod, they are exercising their judgment, 
and they sign accordingly, — " Judging I have subscribed." 
This judgment is of course a dutiful submission to defined 
and infallible articles of Faith. 

It is not by any means necessary that they should have 
the power of passing a sentence contrary to that of the 
supreme Judge ; all that is required to enable them to 
exercise a wise and discreet judgment in the matter, is that 
they should have the right of examining the question, 
and satisfying themselves that the judgment is correct. 

If it be asked, " What is the use of General Councils, 
when the Pope himself can decide the question with in- 
fallible certainty ?" the answer will be clear from what I 
have said about the obligation of the Pope to inquire 
carefully into the tradition and teaching of the Church. 

The following passage from St. Alphonsus fully meets 
the difficulty : " Sometimes, the sovereign Pontiff con- 
vokes councils, in order that he may be more enlightened 
by the Holy Ghost, by means of the discussions carried 
on in the council in some doubt on matters of faith ; for 
Cardinal Du Perron says : ' The Infallibility of the Pope 
does not consist in his always receiving at once from the 
Holy Ghost the necessary light to decide questions of 
faith, but in his deciding without error in matters in 
which he feels himself sufficiently enlightened by God, 
while he sends other questions on winch he does not feel 
himself sufficiently enlightened, to be decided by the 
council, in order that afterwards he may pronounce his 
own judgment.' " (" Defence of the Power of the Pope 
against Febronius," ch. vii.) 



260 INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 



The chief point to be kept before the mind in answer- 
ing difficulties of this kind, is that the Holy Father is 
assisted by the Spirit of God Divinely promised, and is 
not inspired nor gifted with a sensible supernatural light, 
nor guided by a voice from Heaven, in his judgment : 
but so guided, when he has taken all prudent and ordinary 
means of arriving at the knowledge of truth by careful 
study, and the advice of the Episcopal body, if the cir- 
cumstances of the case admit such consultation, that he 
cannot deceive the universal Church when he pronounces 
the final decision and utters the formal definition concern- 
ing the belief of the Church. 

I may here mention that if a case could possibly be 
imagined, which it cannot, consistently with the promises 
of our Divine Lord, wherein a Pope should manifestly 
and obstinately profess heretical doctrines, he would im- 
mediately cease to be Pope. This, according to Suarez, 
is the unanimous opinion of all theologians (Suarez De 
Fide Disp., X. sec. vi. nn. 6-11). 

The reason is that, in this impossible supposition, he 
would at once cease to be the source of Episcopal Unity 
,and of life in the Church ; for he himself would, by his 
heresy, be out of that unity with the Church which 
springs from Faith. 

The Gallican opinion that the ex cathedra decrees of 
the Pope were infallible, if accepted, or rather not re- 
jected, by the majority of the Bishops, involves a supposi- 
tion utterly incompatible with the existence of a living 
Church ; that is to say, a speaking Head and a speaking 
decapitated body in conflict with each other. 

It involves other difficulties also, which would render 
it impossible for the Church to be a constant teacher of 
the Divine truth. It would not, in the Gallican hypoth- 



INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 261 



esis, be absolutely and at all times infallible ; but only 
occasionally, when it would, after a long interval of 
anxious suspense, be ascertained beyond doubt that the 
Catholic Bishops (when no council could be held), dis- 
persed throughout the world, agreed in the doctrinal 
definition published by the Holy Father. 

In this supposition also, it would not be the successor 
of St. Peter who would perform St. Peter's office of con- 
firming his brethren in the Episcopate : but the Bishops 
who would confirm him. This is evidently contrary to 
the express words of our Divine Lord, — " Simon, Simon, 
behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift 
you as wheat : but I have prayed for thee that thy faith 
fail not: and thou being once converted, confirm thy 
brethren" (Luke xxii. 31, 32). 

If we picture to ourselves such a state of things, as 
when the deadly heresy of Arius was desolating the 
Church, — when, as St. Jerome remarked, u the whole 
world was astonished to find itself Arian," — what remedy 
would be found in the confirmation of a Pontifical decree 
by the dispersed Church ? To ascertain this consent with 
any degree of certainty would require a great amount of 
learning, and the opportunity of examining various docu- 
ments. This would clearly be beyond the power of the 
majority of Catholics. 

And if many bishops were tainted with pernicious 
error, as they were when Arius denied the Divinity of 
our Lord, what a work it would be to collate the different 
opinions of the Episcopate, and to calculate the majority ! 

Let us suppose for a moment that some grave errors of 
liberalism crept into the seats of Catholic learning, and 
that false principles, carefully concealed in the garb of a 
popular philosophy, were to find their way into the 



262 INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 



minds of those destined for the ministry; and that in 
time these scarcely perceptible seeds of heresy were, like 
the tares in the parable, to grow up amidst the good 
grain ; and Bishops were to be found in numbers, all over 
the world, advocating the progress of these new ideas, 
sure in the course of time to blight the prospects of the 
Faith. Any one who will carefully consider the circum- 
stances of this case will see at once that no remedy could 
be found to check this formidable evil, in the system 
which imagines that the dogmatic decree of the Holy 
Father denouncing these errors should first of all obtain 
the sanction of the dispersed Church before it could ab- 
solutely condemn them. 

Some people imagine that General Councils can be held 
whenever it is desirable to have the sense of the universal 
Church, on dangerous opinions such as these I have 
alluded to. But, even in these days of easy communica- 
tion, governments, opposed to the interests of Christianity, 
could easily throw such impediments in the way of a 
large concursus of Bishops, as would effectually hinder 
the assembling of a General Council. 

The Council of the Vatican, the first after an interval 
of three hundred years, suspended its deliberations not 
one moment too soon. It would have fared ill with the 
assembled Bishops if the infidel scum of Europe had 
found them in the Holy City after its sacrilegious invasion. 

It was three hundred years after the birth of Chris- 
tianity before the difficulties in the way of assembling a 
council were removed. Yet there existed many of those 
serious evils which are best encountered by the accumu- 
lated power of such an assembly, ravaging the fold of 
Christ. 

In that long period, the Papal decisions alone held in 



INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 263 



check, and finally stamped out, the rapidly-spreading con- 
flagration of error. The Gallican system would have 
miserably perished in the fires it would have enkindled, 
had it been in operation in these early days of bitter trial 
to the one true Faith. 

What I have said here about the efficacy of Papal de- 
cisions in destroying heresy is a sufficient answer to the 
objection, that the definition of Papal Infallibility is an 
innovation, and a change in the old plan of teaching dog- 
matic truth. Of course this verges on the debatable 
ground of history, which is too large an area for a book 
like this. But a short passage from an admirable com- 
pendium, called the " Threshold of the Catholic Church," 
may be readily admitted : 

" The Popes have never allowed any appeal from their 
teaching. They have decided hundreds of points of doc- 
trine, and never yet allowed any one to wait to see how 
the Church would accept their decisions. Any one at- 
tempting to appeal to a future General Council has been 
most unhesitatingly excommunicated and anathematized. 
The Church has submitted to all this without one word of 
remonstrance. If the Popes had not thoroughly believed 
in their Infallible authority, would not this have been the 
height of tyranny ? If the Church, too, had not thoroughly 
believed in it, would it not have been extreme cowardice 
and unfaithfulness to have submitted to it?" ("The 
Threshold of the Catholic Church," p. 270.) 

And now, as I have touched on the historical aspect of 
the question, and prominently alluded to the great Arian 
heresy, I will give my readers an idea of what Cardinal 
Newman thinks of one of the strongest historical objec- 
tions urged by the opponents of Papal Infallibility — the 
condemnation of St. Athanasius by Pope Liberius. 



264 INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 



"Liberius," says the Cardinal, " anathematized Athana' 
sins on a point in which Athanasius was right and Liberiiis 
was wrong. But it is astonishing to me how any one 
can fancy that Liberius, in subscribing the Arian confes- 
sions, promulgated them 6 ex cathedra? considering he 
was not his own master when he signed them, and that 
they were not his drawing up. Who would say that it 
would be a judgment of the Queen's Bench, or a judicial 
act of any kind, if ribbon-men in Ireland seized on one of 
her Majesty's judges, hurried him into the wilds of Con- 
nemara, and there made him, under terror of his life, sign 
a document in the very teeth of an award which he had 
lately made in court on a question of property ? Surely 
for an ex cathedra decision of the Pope is required his 
formal initiation of it, his authorship of its wording, and 
his utterance amid his court, with solemnities parallel to 
those of an Ecumenical Council. It is not a transaction 
that can be done in his travelling-dress, in some hedge-side 
inn, or town tavern, or imperial servants' hall. Liberius' 
subscription can only claim a Nag's Head sort of Infalli- 
bility." (" Historical Sketches," Yol. II. p. 340.) 

It would be very easy to show similarly that the cases 
alleged, in which some two or three Popes taught error, 
all break down here. They were not then teaching the 
universal Church ex cathedra, or as the Universal Doc- 
tors pronouncing a Dogma of Faith. 

Of course every well-instructed Catholic knows that 
the Pope, when he gives a theological opinion, or sug- 
gests to the Episcopate his personal views of a disputed 
point, for the purpose of discussion, and not for teaching 
the Church, is then as fallible as any other theologian or 
learned Doctor. 

If it be asked, how are we certainly to know whether 



INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 265 



the Pope is teaching ex cathedra or not \ I answer that 
there are certain rules and forms well known in the 
Church, by which this can be ascertained without diffi- 
culty. And if it be contended that cases may arise 
where, notwithstanding these forms, or because the Pope 
did not in particular instances, as in the condemnation of 
heretical books and false principles, exactly follow them, 
or set them aside altogether, and that there would be 
necessarily doubt : the shortest answer to this imaginary 
difficulty is : If there is doubt, the Pope may be asked, 
and his declaration will at once set the matter at rest. 

In order to bring out more distinctly these principles 
on which Papal Infallibility is founded, and to show how 
they are practically applied, I mean, in the next chapter, 
to point out briefly what was done in preparing and pro- 
claiming the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. 
This will fairly introduce the grand question of what is 
called " Romish Modern Corruptions," which I purpose 
to meet, by what Cardinal Newman calls the " ineffably 
cogent argument of Development of Doctrine," under 
the guidance and assistance of the Holy Ghost, the life 
and soul of the great Catholic Church. 



266 DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Application of the Dogma of Papal Infallibility 
to the Immaculate Conception. 

|~F the dogma of the Immaculate Conception were prop- 



erly understood by non- Catholics, there would have 
been no outcry against the Definition of the dogma, such 
as has in these recent years disturbed the Catholic world. 
Those who believe in the fundamental mystery of re- 
vealed religion — " The Word was made flesh and dwelt 
amongst us" (John i. 14) — would have seen, in the ex 
cathedra declaration of the supreme Pontiff, only the 
natural inference from a truth which, from the first an- 
nouncement of the good tidings of salvation, has been 
the consolation and hope of all true believers. 

The great God, " by whom all things were made," and 
" who existed from the beginning," actually became one 
of us, was born into this world of sin, and had a mortal 
mother : this is the faith of every one, Protestant as well 
as Catholic, who believes fully and really in the Divinity 
of Christ. This intimate union of the Divinity with our 
humanity, in the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, 
necessarily involves peculiar purity and holiness in the 
woman chosen out of all the human race, " blessed above 
all women," for the purpose of giving flesh and blood to 
the all-holy God. 

Even they who see in the person of Christ only a great 
Prophet, and one whose bitter enemies were forced to 
declare spoke as no other man, and was " wonderful in 




DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 267 

word and work," feel drawn, instinctively and naturally, 
to honor His blessed Mother, as one peerless among her 
sex. 

In the third chapter of the Koran, which is entitled 
" The Family of Imram," we see that even Mahomet had 
clear perceptions of this truth, and that there was some- 
thing of an extraordinary character connected with the 
conception and birth of the Virgin-Mother of Jesus. In 
Sale's translation, we read, that after the wife of Imram 
(Anna the mother of Mary) brought forth the female 
child destined to be the Mother of Christ, she said, " Yerily 
I have brought forth a female, I have called her Mary, 
and I commend her to thy protection, and also her issue 
against Satan, driven away with stones. Therefore the 
Lord accepted her with a gracious acceptance, and caused 
her to bear an excellent offspring." 

The Koran was written in the seventh century, and 
Celali, explaining the passage after the Mahomedan tra- 
ditions, in the fifteenth century, says : " In the his- 
tories it is said, no one is born but Satan touches him at 
his birth, and therefore he bursts into weeping except 
Mary and her Son" (Marracci, " Alcorani Kefutatio," m 
locum). 

The same is repeated, a century later, by Hossein Yaes, 
in his Persian commentary (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque 
Orient., art. Miriam). Cotada confirms the Mahomedan 
opinion in these words : " Every one born of Adam is 
pierced in the side by the touch of Satan when born ex- 
cept Jesus and his Mother : for God put a veil between 
them and Satan, so that the touch of Satan was arrested in 
the veil, nor did it touch them in any part. Moreover it 
is narrated to us that neither of them committed any sin, 
as the other children of Adam do" (Marracci, ibid). 



268 DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 



Sale, in his note on Mahomet's text, says : " It is not 
improbable that the pretended immaculate conception of 
the Virgin Mary is intimated in this passage." 

No wonder Bishop Ullathorne, from whose learned 
book on the Immaculate Conception I have borrowed these 
passages, should say that the respect which Mahomet and 
his followers have always expressed towards the Blessed 
Virgin should put to shame many who profess themselves 
Christians. 

I believe that there are many non-Catholics who rail at 
the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, without know- 
ing in the least what it means, and who suppose that it 
has something to do with the manner in which the Blessed 
Virgin conceived of the Holy Ghost, or gave birth to the 
Saviour. 

For the enlightenment of such as these, I may be ex- 
cused for saying that the Immaculate Conception re- 
fers to the daughter of Anna, who, we believe, was, by a 
special privilege, preserved, at the moment of her concep- 
tion in the womb of Anna, from that curse of original 
sin in which, as the Royal Prophet says, we are all con- 
ceived — " For behold I was conceived in iniquities, and 
in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 1. 7). 

The opposition which better-informed Protestants offer 
to the belief of the Church is founded mainly on their 
peculiar notions about original sin. "Our doctrine," 
says Cardinal Newman, " is not the same as the Protes- 
tant doctrine. Original sin, with us, cannot be called sin, 
in the mere ordinary sense of the word ' sin ; ' it is a 
term denoting Adam's sin as transferred to us, or the 
state to which Adam's sin reduces his children ; but by 
Protestants it seems to be understood as sin, in much the 
same sense as actual sin. We, with the Fathers, think of 



DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 269 



it as something negative : Protestants, as something posi- 
tive. Protestants hold that it is a disease, a radical change 
of nature, an active poison, internally corrupting the soul, 
infecting its primary elements, and disorganizing it : and 
they fancy that we ascribe a different nature from ours 
to the Blessed Yirgin, different from that of her parents, 
and from that of fallen Adam. We hold nothing of the 
kind : we consider that in Adam she died as others ; that 
she was included, together with the whole race, in Adam's 
sentence ; that she incurred his debt, as we do ; but that, 
for the sake of Him who was to redeem her and us upon 
the cross, to her the debt was remitted by anticipation, on 
her the sentence was not carried out, except indeed as re- 
gards natural death, for she died when her time came, as 
others. All this we teach, but we deny that she had 
original sin ; for by original sin we mean, as I have 
already said, something negative, viz., this only : the de- 
privation of that supernatural unmerited grace which 
Adam and Eve had on their first formation, — deprivation 
and the consequences of deprivation. Mary could not 
merit, any more than they, the restoration of that grace ; 
but it was restored to her by God's free bounty, from the 
very first moment of her existence, and thereby, in fact, 
she never came under the original curse, which consisted 
in the loss of it. And she had this special privilege, in 
order to fit her to become the Mother of her and our Re- 
deemer, to fit her mentally and spiritually for it ; so that, 
by the aid of the first grace, she might so grow in grace, 
that when the angel came and her Lord was at hand, she 
might be ' full of grace,' prepared, as far as a creature 
could be prepared, to receive Him into her bosom." 
(" Anglican Difficulties," p. 396.) 
I could not help giving this long extract, because it 



270 DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 

seems to me to remove the entire difficulty which intelli- 
gent non-Catholics see in the dogma of the Immaculate 
Conception. 

Many years ago, shortly after my ordination, and while 
engaged in giving short lectures to the people confided 
to my spiritual care, I was fiercely assailed on this very 
point by an Anglican clergyman of considerable ability. 
He maintained, that by teaching that Mary was conceived 
without sin, I was manifestly separating our Divine Sav- 
iour from the human race. I did not then understand, 
as clearly as I do now, the Protestant notion of original 
sin ; and hence my explanation of the doctrine was 
treated with indifference if not with contempt. I really 
could not imagine at the time how any Christian could 
believe that a Catholic priest, who is continually setting 
before his people the reality and fulness of the mystery 
of God in the flesh, the source of every sacramental grace, 
and the sum and substance of all Christian Faith and 
Hope and Charity, could attempt in his teaching to di- 
vide Christ, and induce them to believe that the God-Man 
was not really our Brother. 

Let me then assure any non-Catholic readers who may 
be curious to know what the Church really teaches about 
the Immaculate Conception, that it does not concern any 
one but Mary herself, that it has reference only to her 
own person, and has nothing whatever to do with Joa- 
chim and Anna, her father and mother. 

She was, as the schoolmen say, actively conceived in the 
womb of her mother, like any other human being. The 
germ of her body was formed in the usual natural manner, 
but at the moment when God infused a soul into this 
germ, and made of the soul and body one individual be- 
ing, or in her passive conception, this person was, by the 



DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 271 

antecedent merits of the Saviour applied in an extraor- 
dinary manner, preserved or exempted from the depri- 
vation of original supernatural grace, caused in the rest 
of mankind by the sin of Adam, "in whom," as the 
Apostle says, "we have all sinned" (Koin. v. 12). 

To render this plainer, I will use some of the words of 
the late Cardinal Archbishop of Malines, Cardinal De- 
champs. His Eminence points out, that there is always 
a direct action of God in the gift of life which He be- 
stows upon us, and he makes use of the simple words of 
the Catechism, to enable every one come to the use of 
reason, to take up his explanation. The Catechism asks, 
" Is God vour Father ?" " Yes " we answer, " God is our 
Father, and far more so than our parents ; because by 
them He formed our bodies, whilst He Himself created 
our souls out of nothing." 

God is then always creating new human beings, and it 
is the creation of the soul and its union with the body 
which constitutes human nature. The Immaculate 
Conception therefore is a Divine act, the act by which 
God, in creating the soul of Mary, and uniting it to the 
body which He destined for it, preserved it from the 
general contagion. It was indeed a great exception, a 
wonderful privilege ; and Mary was in this way " highly 
favored," as the Protestant Yersion translates the " gratia 
jplena" of the Yulgate. 

But this favor was quite in keeping with the designs 
of Infinite mercy, and the exigencies of Infinite holiness. 
He could give up everything else for the sake of His un- 
worthy creatures, — Bliss, Glory, Honor, Manly Dignity ; 
but His Sanctity He could not part with ; nor could He 
ally it to a body and soul that had ever borne the taint 
and " deprivation" of original sin. 



272 DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 



This will, I think, sufficiently explain what is meant by 
the Immaculate Conception. Will any one say that God 
could not bestow this great privilege on the creature 
chosen out of all women to be the Virgin-Mother of His 
only Son ? Can any one presume to think that an ex- 
ception of this kind was unworthy of God's greatness ; 
or that He who bore the heavy weight of our iniquities, 
and shared all our sorrows, set a limit unworthy of His 
unbounded love for the human race, because He did not 
actually partake in sin, which would have robbed Him also 
of His sanctity ? 

" Give me another Mother of God," exclaims Bossuet, 
" and then fear to make an exception." 

I will now proceed to show that the definition of this 
dogma was perfectly in accordance with the principles on 
which I have explained the reasonableness of the Infalli- 
bility of the Church, and of the supreme Head of the 
Church on earth. 

Every Catholic knows that the late Holy Father Pius 
IX. possessed, in an eminent degree, that tender devotion 
to the Mother of God which the Saints and Fathers of 
the Church consider one of the most striking marks of a 
happy predestination. There is not a document issued 
under the hands and bearing the signature of Pius IX., 
that does not bear testimony to this devotion. With him 
it was the active principle of a life spent in the service 
of his Divine Master, to ask every grace and blessing 
through the intercession of Mary. Such was his pro- 
found humility that, though blameless, as far as those 
who knew him best could judge, of any wilful sin, he 
dared not appear in the presence of th« All-Holy, save 
in company with her whom he loved to salute with the 
endearing name of Mother. He seemed, in the midst of 



DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 273 

joy or tribulation, to have her always near his inmost 
thoughts, thus realizing to himself the last command of 
Christ to the disciple whom He loved, — " Son, behold 
thy Mother." 

Did he therefore yield to a feeling of enthusiasm, and, 
without consulting the Bishops of the Church, at once 
proclaim the dogma in which he always firmly believed ? 

Far from it. For many years before his elevation to 
the Papal throne, a great number of Bishops had applied 
to the Holy See to have this faith, generally received 
throughout the Church, sanctioned by some formal act. 

Perrone gives an authentic list of three hundred Bish- 
ops or heads of religious orders who, between 1834 and 
1847, had asked the Holy Father for authority to insert 
the word " Immaculate" in the preface of the Mass of the 
Conception. 

After the accession of Pius IX., when Provincial Syn- 
ods were revived, many of these, for example those of 
Sens, of Bheims, of Avignon, of Tours, and of Baltimore, 
where the whole Episcopacy of the United States was 
assembled, made a formal declaration of faith in the doc- 
trine. " During the same Pontificate," as Bishop Ulla- 
thorne observes, " petitions flowed in from Prelates in all 
parts of the world, asking the Holy See to pronounce a 
dogmatic decision upon the mystery." 

In the February of 1849, the Encyclical letter was 
published at Gaeta and addressed to all the Patriarchs, 
Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops of the Catholic 
world, informing them of the general desire to have the 
dogma declared an Article of Catholic Faith. 

In this document, the Holy Father tells them that he 
had appointed a commission of most distinguished Cardi- 
nals to make a most accurate examination of the whole 



274 DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 

question. He urges them to enjoin prayers in their re- 
spective dioceses, that he may be illuminated with 
Heavenly light, to enable him to decide what is most to 
the glory of God. Finally, he most earnestly calls upon 
all Bishops to signify to him, as early as practicable, what 
the devotion of the clergy and people of his diocese is 
towards the Immaculate Conception ; and how far they 
felt the desire to see it defined by the Holy See. But 
especially, and above all, did he express his desire that 
the Bishops themselves would convey to him what was 
their own sentiment and desire on the subject. 

It may be new to non-Catholic readers, who are 
probably under the impression so commonly conveyed by 
the enemies of the Church, that Pope Pius was animated 
by senile vanity, and the desire of making a reputation 
for himself by the solemnity of a formal Definition, that 
letters from upwards of six hundred Bishops poured into 
Pome. Every one, without exception, expressed his 
firm belief in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed 
Virgin and his devotion towards the mystery of God's 
love and power. I quote still from the learned Bishop 
above named. Four only raised any objection to its being 
defined. But fifty-two, while declaring themselves satis- 
fied as to the sufficiency of theological reasons for such a 
Definition, and themselves prepared for it, yet hesitated 
as to its opportuneness at the present moment. Still, all, 
whatever might be their own opinions, professed them- 
selves most ready to obey whatever emanated from the 
Holy See upon the subject. 

It would be impossible to crowd into one chapter the 
account of the various consultations that were made by 
special commissions and congregations of Cardinals and 
eminent theologians. The documents on the matter 



DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 275 

were published by order of the Holy Father, and fill nine 
large volumes. Everything was done that human pru- 
dence could suggest, to have the subject carefully and 
thoroughly discussed, and to reason out all the difficulties 
that had ever been raised against the dogma in the schools 
of theology. 

This went on during the years 1852-53, after the re- 
turn of Pope Pius IX. to Rome. At last all was ready 
for the solemn Definition. Then the Holy Father, sur- 
rounded by one hundred and fifty-two mitred Bishops, 
fifty- three Cardinals, more than two hundred Prelates of 
an inferior order, a vast body of clergy, and some thirty 
or forty thousand people, declared that "It is a dogma 
of faith that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first 
instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and 
grace of God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the 
Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from 
all stain of original sin." 

But it may be said, what is the use of all this inquiry 
and study, and heaping up of authorities of Fathers and 
theologians, and this solemn declaration, when the doc- 
trine of the Immaculate Conception is not to be found 
in " the Scriptures of truth" % Nay, more : how can that 
become an article of Faith which is in direct contradic- 
tion to the express teaching of St. Paul — that in Adam 
we have all sinned, all without exception ? — "For all have 
sinned, and do need the glory of God" (Eom. iii. 23) ; 
and again — "And so death passed upon all men, in whom 
we have all sinned" (Rom. v. 12). 

Surely this is decisive against the new doctrine, and 
is a clear proof that Rome is ever adding " the traditions 
of men" to the everlasting Gospel. 

I answer, first as regards the teaching of St. Paul : This 



276 DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 

teaching of St. Paul, in the third and fifth chapter of the 
Epistle to the Romans, is fully believed in its literal and 
obvious sense by the Church. This is clear from the 
passage quoted above from Cardinal Newman, who, 
grounding his teaching on the doctrine of the most learned 
Catholic theologians, Bellarmine, Suarez, and others, says 
that all without exception, even the Blessed Virgin, have 
incurred the deprivation consequent on original sin. She 
in this sense has sinned. She was necessarily, by the 
fact of being conceived as a human being, and a descend- 
ant of Adam, under the obligation and the debt con- 
tracted by the whole human race. But in her case the 
debt was remitted by anticipation, for the sake of the 
Redeemer. She did not therefore actually come under 
the guilt of original sin. She was not for a single in- 
stant deprived of the supernatural grace forfeited by 
our first parents. She never therefore incurred the guilt 
of original sin, which consists in the loss of this unmer- 
ited grace. 

The common and universal law declared by St. Paul 
deprived the Blessed Virgin, as all other human beings, 
of the right to this grace : but the merits of Christ ex- 
tended to her, in a special and wonderful manner, restored 
to her that right at the moment when she came into 
existence as a person. 

Suarez beautifully applies to her the words of Assuerus 
to Esther, as if God the Almighty said to her, " This law 
is not made for thee, but for all others" (Esther xv. 13). 

"Why this special favor of exemption from the general 
debt was made in her case, is shown in the passage of 
Dr. Newman to which I have referred. Sin in any shape 
or form could not touch her, through whom a fallen race 
was to be intimately united with the Holiness of God. 



DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 277 

And here, in passing, I may note an objection once put 
to me by an intelligent Catholic, not for the purpose of 
cavilling at the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, 
but for his own instruction on a point which seemed 
difficult for him to understand. 

" You insist," he said, " much on the sinlessness of 
Mary, in order that she might be most closely united 
with the All-Holy God ; but are not sinners admitted to 
a union witli the same God in the Holy Communion ? 
The real partaking of the Body of the Lord does not 
depend on the Faith or good dispositions of the receiver : 
for the wicked and the unworthy eat and drink the Body 
and Blood of the Lord to their own destruction." 

The answer is simple. The wicked and the unworthy 
do indeed receive the Body of the Lord in the way of 
food ; but there is no union between them and the sacred 
Person of Christ. Their souls are dead through mortal 
sin, and therefore cannot partake of that spiritual refec- 
tion which is afforded to those who are in the state of 
grace. Instead of nourishing them by enabling them 
"to abide in Christ" according to His blessed promise 
(John vi. 57), " they are guilty of the Body and Blood 
of the Lord" (1 Cor. xi. 27). " Sancta Sanctis" 
"Holy things to the holy," say all the old Liturgies, 
applying the words of our Divine Lord — " Give not that 
which is holy to dogs" (Matt. vii. 6) — to the Blessed 
Sacrament. Hence St. Ambrose says : "]STo one receives 
the food of Christ unless he is first restored to health" 
(Lib. YI. in Luc, c. ix.). It is well known that even 
healthy food administered to those whose ill-health pre- 
vents them from assimilating it, may produce serious 
disorders ; so I need not dwell longer upon this point. 

I now return to the first part of the objection, which 



278 DOGMA OE THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 

is constantly in the mouths of those who charge the 
Church with corrupting the pure doctrine of Christ. 

u "Where," say they, " is this doctrine laid down clearly 
in the Bible % We cannot find it anywhere stated, in the 
Scriptures, that Mary was conceived without sin ; and 
therefore this new doctrine can form no part of the 
Denosit of the Faith." 

-L 

This argument, and every similar one built on the 
absence of formal and direct teaching in the written 
Word of God, is founded on what is called, in logic, a 
jpetitio principii, a taking for granted the very thing 
that is in dispute. Here comes in the subject-matter of 
this entire book — the Rule of Faith. 

I think I have conclusively shown that " the Bible and 
the Bible only" is not a safe Rule, nor one of general 
application ; and that it can never enable men, as long as 
they dispute about the meaning of its written words, to 
reach the real ground of Faith, the certain knowledge of 
what God has taught. 

It is clear, too, that this Rule contradicts itself in the 
most palpable manner. For it lays down, as the founda- 
tion of all Faith, that nothing is to be believed which is 
not contained in Scripture, and yet in no part of the 
sacred Scriptures can we find it clearly taught that we 
are to confine our belief to what is written there. 

The Catholic Rule of Faith is completely different. 
We believe in the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, and 
His perpetual guide and assistance in enabling the teach- 
ing Church, and the Head of the teaching Church, to 
point out clearly and infallibly the meaning of all that is 
contained, whether in the written Word or the Traditions 
handed down to us from the days of the Apostles. 

If in the writings of the Fathers, and in the acts of 



DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 279 

Councils, and the teaching of the supreme Pontiff, we find 
an explanation and development of truths only indicated 
in the sacred volume ; and that this doctrine has been 
constantly maintained in the Church, then we believe, 
without the least doubt or misgiving, that this doctrine 
is certainly revealed by God. 

If we apply this principle to the Immaculate Concep- 
tion, the arguments founded on the Protestant Rule of 
Faith are without the least weight. The only question is, 
what has the living, speaking Divine authority taught ? 
and to the solution of this question all the careful research 
and prolonged study which preceded the Definition of 
the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception were directed. 

Those who will give themselves the trouble, not of 
going through the nine large tomes published by order 
of Pius IX., but a short compendium, such as the book 
of Bishop Ullathorne on the Immaculate Conception, 
will find enough to satisfy them, that abundant evidence 
was accumulated by the Congregations of Cardinals and 
Theologians to establish the fact that the Immaculate 
Conception of the Blessed Virgin had always been, from 
the earliest times, the almost unanimous belief of the 
Catholic Church. 

If it be asked, why there was ever any difference of 
opinion in the Church on the subject, the answer is, that 
in the middle ages, when scholastic theology was fulfill- 
ing its grand task of formulating and accurately defining 
the exact limits of sound doctrine, there were certain 
great and pious minds, which, notwithstanding their at- 
traction to this truth, experienced a hesitation on the sub- 
ject, which they submitted to the judgment of the Church. 

From want of precision in the very idea of the concep- 
tion, and not distinguishing between the Active and 



280 DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 

Passive Conception, it was feared that Catholic Faith in 
this doctrine, which should be the result of a Definition, 
might affect the doctrine of original sin. 

Hence there were different schools of theologians, who 
only awaited the Definition of the Dogma to profess with 
one month the same identical doctrine. 

If it shonld be further asked, why should the late 
Pontiff Pius IX. have felt himself particularly called 
upon to proclaim the Definition ? the shortest answer to 
this would be, that " it is not for us," any more than it 
was for the Apostles after the Resurrection, " to know 
the times or moments which the Father had put in his 
own power" (Acts i. 7). We believe in the Holy Ghost, 
the guide of the Catholic Church, now, as He was when 
the Apostles received from Him the power to " be wit- 
nesses unto Christ to the uttermost bounds of the earth" 
(il. 8). 

But we may, in the events of these latter times, see 
almost manifestly why " it would seem good to the Holy 
Ghost " that the Vicar of Christ should define this doc- 
trine. Never was there an age in which intellectual 
pride asserted itself so strongly. Men would fain forget 
the fall of the human race which sprung from Pride. 

The prevailing opinion, I do not say belief, — for Faith 
there is almost none outside the Church, — is that man is 
quite sufficient for himself, and can do without God. It 
was well to remind the proud world, therefore, of the 
reality of its fall, and of its need of the hand of God for 
its restoration. 

This could not be done more effectually than by pro- 
claiming the revealed truth, that one creature alone has 
been exempted from it, because she was to be the Mother 
of the new Adam, the Head of the regenerate human 
family. 



DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 281 



The definition of the Immaculate Conception also 
stamps with reality the fact, almost forgotten or ignored 
by those who will not hear the Church, that the only 
Son of God, at a certain definite time, entered into this 
world of ours, became a man like one of us, flesh of our 
flesh and bone of our bone, and had a mortal mother. 

In proclaiming this new glory of the ever-Blessed 
Yirgin, the Church asserts, in the strongest way possible 
for her, the reality of that union between the Divinity 
and our humanity, which is the foundation of revealed 
religion, the explanation of every mystery, and the sole 
ground of Christian Hope. 

To use the eloquent words of Cardinal Dechamps, — " It 
was an event in doctrine ; a flower had expanded on the 
eternal tree of truth, and the eyes which are not attracted 
are dazzled by its brightness. It was an event in morals. 
The general impression which it has produced bears wit- 
ness to the death-struggle of indifierentism in the nations 
of Christendom, and the presence of a spirit of religion 
which men had too hastily believed to be extinct. Those 
whom that spirit does not console are disturbed at its 
presence. It was a social event, and, as it were, an un- 
expected apparition of the Supreme authority upon earth, 
of that spiritual and teaching authority which alone has 
children among all nations." 

I mean, in the next chapter, to combat the unjust 
prejudice which fallible and unauthorized teaching en- 
deavors to excite against " the Church spread throughout 
the world, and in communion with the See of Rome," 
when it classes the glorious Dogma of the Immaculate 
Conception with the idle fables it affects to abhor ; and 
stigmatizes the honor thus paid to the Mother of God, 
as " one of the latest outcomes of Romish corruption." 



282 



44 MODERN ROMISH CORRUPTIONS. 



CHAPTEE XV. 

" Modern Romish Corruptions," and Development 
under the Guidance of the Spirit of Truth. 

WHATEVEK notions non-Catholics may form abont 
44 the everlasting Church," there is one which 
seems fixed in their minds ; and it is, that if there exists 
such an institution in the present world, it is old-fashioned 
and out of keeping with the times. It can only record 
the hazy traditions of the dark ages ; or, if quickened 
into action by the onward march of progress, it can only 
trine with human intelligence, by elaborating new doc- 
trines, which never entered into the mind of the Divine 
Founder of Christianity. 

This is about the real estimate of Catholicity formed 
by free-thought at the present day, whether announced 
in leading articles or in the pages of magazines and re- 
views. When men of genius and learning devote their 
talents to startle the reading world with new theories of 
religion utterly regardless of Catholic teaching, except as 
a thing to be kicked out of their way with scorn and con- 
tempt; and the hard- worked editors of newspapers, if 
they, through lack of other matter, devote a paragraph 
to the subject, strive only to be sensational at the expense 
of truth, there is but a poor chance for the public, who 
feed their minds on these ephemeral productions, of 
knowing anything reliable about the Catholic religion. 

"When I read some of these amusing paragraphs evi- 
dently penned by men who would have the public be- 



"MODERN ROMISH CORRUPTIONS." 283 

lieve " they know all about it," and note the extraordinary 
association of ideas, I think of the editor in Pickwick, 
who, when he would elucidate the metaphysics of the 
Chinese, found out in the encyclopaedia the word China 
and then Metaphysics, and u combined his information." 

I must confess I am often strongly tempted to select 
some of the most enjoyable of these scraps of learning, 
and to publish them with short comments indicating the 
probable meaning, and sources of information, as " curi- 
osities in literature." 

It is particularly interesting to watch the newspapers 
when the old Church brings out of her vast treasury some 
truth that seems new, and by its apparent freshness excites 
a passing interest even in the busy world. It is positively 
amazing to see how very little the leaders of public 
opinion know about it, and yet with what " prodigious" 
dogmatism they expound, according to their own views, 
that little. They are bound to write about it, of course, 
for the public curiosity must be gratified ; but then any 
ordinarily instructed Catholic can see that they have 
gathered their information at haphazard, and put the 
heterogeneous material together without serious thought 
or discrimination. 

When I remember the extraordinary effusions I have 
read about Papal Infallibility, and the Immaculate Con- 
ception, and the Sacred Heart, I know not whether to 
smile or grieve over these recollections. There is such 
an air of profundity and solemn, if not solid, erudition 
infused into these creations of the imagination ; and the 
atoms of fact, picked up here and there, are so gravely dis- 
torted and twisted about, to make them fit together, that 
one finds it difficult to suppress a natural tendency to 
laugh. But in truth, real heart-felt sorrow over the 



284 "MODERN ROMISH CORRUPTIONS." 



desecration of holy things is the only feeling that is war- 
rantable under the circumstances. 

I have noticed already something of this kind that ap- 
peared in a kindly-meant review to the Introduction of 
,£ Catholic Christianity and Modern Unbelief" published 
recently in a colonial newspaper. The editor was ex- 
treme]y courteous ; but when he went on to say that if 
the Catholic Church were to persist in inventing dogmas 
of Faith, the original revelation would soon be com- 
pletely swamped in the outflow of these new doctrines, 
I felt fairly overcome by what a reverend antagonist 
once called my " emotional nature," and, forgetting for 
the moment the gravity of the subject, burst into a fit of 
uncontrollable laughter. 

But I see now that this was very inexcusable, if it was 
a " human act" at all, for I find in the course of my read- 
ing up, for this book, the writings of distinguished Prot- 
estant divines, that even greater absurdities are perpe- 
trated by them in their estimate of Catholic doctrine, 
than were struck off in a hurried half-hour by the luck- 
less editor to whom I have just alluded. 

When the learned and much respected Dr. Pusey fell 
into the grave theological blunder of mistaking the as- 
sistance and help of the Holy Ghost for a real hypostati- 
cal incarnation, and insinuated that such a monstrous 
union was necessarily involved in the Infallibility of the 
Pope, I certainly ought to have controlled my emotional 
nature at the slip of my good friend, who was only good- 
naturedly warning me of the danger which suddenly 
flashed upon his overburdened mind at the sight of my 
" recklessness" in upholding Infallibility. 

Some time ago, Dr. Littledale published a manual to 
deter anxious Anglo-Catholics from joining the Catholic 



"MODERN ROMISH CORRUPTIONS." 285 



Church "in communion with the Holy See." I read this 
book, as I feel bound to read every book assailing the 
Church that comes in my way ; and I found in it such 
grave errors regarding Catholic dogma and theology, — I 
will not add history, for mistakes in this department of 
learning cannot be avoided by one in his position, — but 
in reference to doctrine, — that perfectly astounded me. 

I was once strongly moved to write and correct some- 
thing extravagant about the devotion to the Sacred Heart, 
which I read also in a colonial newspaper ; but am glad 
I did not, now that I have read the strange things which 
Dr. Littledale has written upon the subject. When this 
clergyman, distinguished for his learning, and remarkable 
for his High-Church proclivities, makes serious mistakes 
on the very nature of this devotion, it would be unfair to 
find fault with one who treated it, in a paragraph of his 
paper, according to the view of ordinary prejudice. 

" The modern worship of the Sacred Heart is," Dr. 
Littledale says (page 121), " sheer heresy, condemned by 
the two General Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, 
which forbade any worship being paid to a divided 
Christ." Surely he ought to know that the condemna- 
tion in these two Councils of the worshippers of a divided 
Christ is simply a condemnation of ISTestorianism, of a 
worship terminating in a twofold personality. 

Nestorius denied that Mary was the Mother of God, 
maintaining obstinately that she was the Mother only of 
the man Christ. The Catholic doctrine on the subject of 
the Sacred Heart makes no such division. Dr. Littledale 
could easily have ascertained this from any popular Cath- 
olic work on the subject. But just in the same way as 
Dr. Pusey reasoned about the Infallibility, probably say- 
ing to himself, " How could the Pope be guided by the 



286 "MODERN ROMISH CORRUPTIONS." 



Holy Ghost, unless the Holy Ghost resided personally 
within him," thns losing sight of the vast difference be- 
tween mere assistance and personal union ; so this distin- 
guished Anglo-Catholic divine, who believes, it must be 
presumed, in his own Infallibility, else he could not dare 
to keep any earnest Christians from entering the " one 
Fold," reasons on the Devotion of the Sacred Heart. 

" How could Catholics," he must have thought, " wor- 
ship this material Heart, if they did not divide the hu- 
manity of Christ?" 

Can anything be more plainly against the idea of such 
division than the teaching of the Church ? 

" The object of the worship yielded to the Incarnate 
"Word is the whole Christ ; hence, as Christ possesses a 
double nature, human and Divine, a partial object of that 
worship is the humanity including His body. And inas- 
much as the body consists of various members, each of 
these members constitutes a partial object : but the for- 
mal object, the wherefore of the direction of such and 
so great a worship upon them, is the Divinity of the 
Word whose own they are in virtue of the hypostatic 
union. The faithful do not adore the Heart of Jesus, 
separating or prescinding from the Divinity, when they 
worship it as it is, the Heart of Jesus — the Heart of the 
Person of the Word to which it is inseparably united." 
(Hurter, quoted by Father Ryder in his " Reply" to Lit- 
tleton.) 

The faithful specially direct their worship to the Sa- 
cred Heart, because the heart is the natural symbol of 
the love of the Saviour. The reason they worship the 
Sacred Heart at all is because it is eternally and insepara- 
bly united to the Divine Person. They give the Heart 



"MODERN ROMISH CORRUPTIONS." 287 

prominence in this devotion, because it brings more strik- 
ingly before them the fact of His Infinite love. That 
the principle of this devotion is nothing new in the 
Catholic Church will be abundantly proved to any one 
who will read this manual of Father Eyder. 

I have seen many things written against the Immacu- 
late Conception, in which it is styled " one of the most 
prominent of the modern corruptions of Rome," and I 
find that the main difficulty with Protestant writers on 
the subject is, that here, like in the cases of the Personal 
Infallibility, and the Devotion of the Sacred Heart, the 
true doctrine is not understood. 

There is at the bottom of all the theological objections 
to this dogma, either an ignorance of the true nature of 
original sin, or the idea that we Catholics attribute to the 
Blessed Virgin sinlessness the same as the Infinite Sanctity 
of God. Original sin is a deprivation of the original 
state of supernatural and unmerited grace, in which Adam 
was created. The Blessed Yirgin was exceptionally pre- 
served from this privation, not through her own merits, 
but by the antecedent merits of her Divine Son. 

She is sinless by being freed from sin, through a special 
favor of God. The sinlessness of Christ arises from the 
inherent and essential sanctity of the Second Person of 
the Adorable Trinity. 

It would weary my readers to lead them through the 
different " corrupt doctrines " attributed to the Church 
" spread throughout the world and in communion with 
the See of Pome." 

There is one great principle which proves that the 
Church cannot adopt any corruptions either in doctrine 
or morality or worship, and that is because she is now, as 



288 "MODERN eomish corruptions." 



ever, and will be to the consummation of the world, 
assisted in avoiding all corruptions of this kind by the 
unfailing guidance of the Spirit of Truth. 

But it will be said, and with every appearance of truth, 
the Church does not believe now, nor worship now, as 
she did in early times. There are devotions in modern 
times, and doctrines too, which were unknown to the 
primitive Christians ; and these must be, from the nature 
of the case, the inventions of men, and therefore manifest 
corruptions of the original Deposit of the Faith. There 
are festivals, too, of which primitive Christianity knew 
nothing : Corpus Christi, for example ; the feast of the 
Immaculate Conception, and ever so many other festivals 
of the Blessed Virgin ; the feast of the Sacred Heart, and 
others, the institution of which, with date and other par- 
ticulars, may be seen in Butler, or any other Catholic 
work of authority recognized by Catholics. Are not 
these novelties, as well as the doctrines they commem- 
orate ? — and, on the principle that " whatever is new cannot 
be true," or that of St. Yincent Lerins — " Quod semper, 
quod uhique, quod db omnibus" (" That which was be- 
lieved always, that which was believed everywhere, that 
which was believed by all") — they are unquestionably 
innovations ; and consequently corruptions of the original 
" Faith once delivered to the Saints." 

There would be something in this argument, if it could 
be shown that any modern devotion or doctrine contra- 
dicted the Faith of the Apostolic and primitive ages. 

If, for example, the Church in these days taught that 
the foundation rested not on Peter or the " Bock" im- 
movably fixed by Christ, but upon the King or Queen, 
or child who might happen to hold the reins of civil 
government ; and that instead of there being one visible 



"MODERN ROMISH CORRUPTIONS." 289 



foundation, there were as many as there are civil rulers 
in the world, — this indeed would be something altogether 
new, and not only new, but in direct opposition to the 
" ideal of a Christian Church," as understood by all an- 
tiquity. 

It would be something altogether new to the Chris- 
tianity established by our Divine Lord and the Apostles, 
if the Church of modern times taught that, instead of a 
sovereign Pontiff supported by the Bishops in communion 
with him throughout the world, and assisted by the con- 
stant guidance of the Spirit of Truth, a mere lay tribunal, 
often not composed of believers, were to be the Supreme 
Judge of doctrine. 

It would be an unmistakable innovation on primitive 
doctrine, if the Church of modern times were to teach, 
that, instead of seven Sacraments, there were only two ; 
that the Body of the Lord was not really present in the 
Blessed Sacrament ; that the everlasting and uninter- 
rupted Sacrifice predicted by the last of the Prophets 
was a mere figment ; and that the " one fold," instead of 
being, as the "Apostle describes it, " unius labii" — of one 
profession, — were to include the public profession of every 
variety of doctrine that can be imagined between the 
Latitudinarianism which rejects the Trinity, the Divinity 
of Christ, eternity of punishment, and indeed every 
revealed mystery, and that High-Churchism which seems 
to outsiders to border so closely on Catholicism. 

All these things would be startling novelties for primi- 
tive Christians, if any of them, in the shape of the learned 
Saints and Doctors and Fathers of the early times, were 
again to visit this world, and look around them on the 
multiplied forms of Christianity. 

No doubt these holy personages would, if they ap- 



290 "MODERN ROMISH CORRUPTIONS." 



peared in the flesh, lift up their hands in horror at modern 
corruptions of this kind. It would, on the contrary, if 
they regarded the old Church " spread throughout the 
world, and in communion with the Holy See," glad- 
den their hearts to find that, through the complete 
fulfilment of the Saviour's promise, men, weak and help- 
less of themselves, had been found faithful in the midst 
of the storms of revolutions, and the upheavals of thrones 
and empires ; and that " the Faith once delivered to the 
Saints" had, through their ministry, instead of declining, 
so grown and developed with time, as to be brought 
home to the practical knowledge of all its children. 

This is what the holy men of past days look down upon 
from their thrones in Heaven, with never-failing interest 
and delight. Not a devotion, nor a festival, nor a Defi- 
nition can be introduced by the Church militant, that en- 
ables the little ones of Christ on earth to appreciate more 
fully the infinite condescension and love of God our 
Saviour, but their angels, " who always see the face of the 
Father who is in Heaven" (Matt, xviii. 10), join with the 
Saints in transports of admiration and holy joy. For if 
" there is joy before the angels of God, upon one sinner 
doing penance" (Luke xv. 10), how much greater must 
be their delight when millions throughout the whole 
world are excited to love God more heartily, and to serve 
Him more faithfully by the clearer knowledge of His in- 
finite goodness, exhibited to them in the Devotions to the 
Blessed Sacrament, and the Sacred Heart, or in the Defi- 
nitions which attest the glory and the purity and the ex- 
ceeding dignity of the Virgin-Mother of the Emmanuel ! 

To a well-instructed Catholic, and one who is filled 
with the spirit of his religion, there is no spectacle more 
edifying and consoling than that of the Church militant, 



"MODERN ROMISH CORRUPTIONS." 291 



in the midst of the persecutions of the world. He ob- 
tains a glimpse, through the darkness of tribulations, of 
the grand purposes of the Paraclete, who is always with 
her. Her glory shines out more gloriously through the 
dim glass of Faith, as her faithful Guardian and Protec- 
tor gathers her more closely to Himself, and deprives 
her of every earthly consolation. He sees that, in pro- 
portion as she is cut off from the temptations inseparable 
from worldly magnificence, her heart glows with the fire 
of Divine Love, and that her solicitude for her children, 
in the spirit of self-sacrificing charity, seems to absorb 
all her attention ; and when, under the influence of these 
supernatural feelings, her voice goes forth to the uttermost 
bounds of the earth, it is to carry peace, joy, benignity, 
and the other gifts of the Holy Spirit, by some clearer 
exposition of the Infinite Love of God for souls redeemed 
by the most Precious Blood of His Divine Son. 

If any one could mark the laws which seem to govern 
the process of doctrinal development, he would see that 
these Definitions were always preceded by trials arising 
from heresy, or unbelief, or persecution ; and would soon 
learn to note, in these apparent evils, only the means 
whereby the Spirit of God reveals more distinctly to men 
of good will the marvels of the Divine Mercy. 

What but the blasphemies and impieties and persecu- 
tion of a proud unbelieving world, raving madly against 
the mysteries of the Incarnation and its complement in 
the doctrines of the Blessed Eucharist and the Sacred 
Heart, have in a manner wrung from the Church these 
solemn declarations of the reality and the immensity of 
Infinite Love ? 

There is no more interesting study for an earnest 
Christian, capable of appreciating it, than the progress 



292 "MODERN ROMISH CORRUPTIONS. 



of what the enemies of the Church designate as " Romish 
corruptions." 

It was this that led Dr. Newman into " the one Fold." 

It will, I think, gratify my Catholic readers to hear 
what he says upon the subject of this " ineffably cogent 
argument " which, in spite of his strong prejudices that, 
till a short time before his conversion, forced him to re- 
gard the Pope as Antichrist, carried him at last, weary 
and worn with endless doubts and perplexities and so- 
licitudes, into the arms long open to receive him, and 
laid him down to rest in peace at last on the bosom of 
the great mother of all true believers. 

"It is well known," says the Cardinal, "that, though 
the creed of the Church has been one and the same from 
the beginning, yet it has been so deeply lodged in her 
bosom, as to be held by individuals, more or less implicit- 
ly, instead of being delivered, from the first, in those 
special statements or what are called Definitions under 
which it is now presented to us, and which preclude mis- 
take or ignorance. These Definitions, which are but the 
expression of portions of the one dogma which has ever 
been received by the Church, are the work of time ; they 
have grown to their present shape and number in the 
course of eighteen centuries, under the exigency of suc- 
cessive events, such as heresies and the like, and they may, 
of course, receive still further additions as time goes on." 
His Eminence then continues to say, that the whole sub- 
ject of this doctrinal development interested him more 
than anything else, and that it gradually convinced him 
" that the decrees of later councils, or what Anglicans 
call the Roman corruptions, were but instances of that 
very same doctrinal law which was to be found in the 
early Church ; and that in the sense in which the dog- 



" MODERN ROMISH CORRUPTIONS." 293 



matic truth of the prerogatives of the Blessed Yirgin 
may be said, in the lapse of centuries, to have grown 
upon the consciousness of the faithful, in that same sense 
did, in the first age, the mystery of the Blessed Trinity 
also gradually shine out and manifest itself more and more 
completely before their minds. 5 ' (" Anglican Difficulties," 
p. 320.) 

Here is a sound philosophical view, broad and compre- 
hensive, which a man of ordinary intelligence can easily 
understand. The Church in the beginning, as the Church 
in modern times, is not a sort of animated fossil. The 
teaching body in it, as well as the multitude of believers, 
are filled with a real life, and this life is sustained by the 
assistance of the Spirit of Truth and the abiding presence 
of the Saviour. 

Christians who read the narrative given by St. John 
of the Last Supper cannot fail to see that the teaching 
body, then represented by the Apostles, who sat at table 
with him, and afterwards constituted by their successors 
duly called to the ministry of the Word, were to enjoy a 
presence which would be to them forever a source of 
unfailing life and spiritual energy, and a bond of perfect 
unity. 

What else can be the meaning of the promise, that 
they who believed in Him would have the gift of mira- 
cles, and the power of doing greater things than He had 
done while He was visibly amongst them ? (John xiv. 12.) 
And then the promise of an immediate response to 
prayer, more consoling than that other, that whatsoever 
His disciples would ask of the Father in His name should 
be granted — " If you shall ask me anything in My name, 
that I will do" (John xiv. 14) — what could it mean but a 
constant and intimate presence % As if He said, " Invoke 



294 " MODEKN KOMISH CORRUPTIONS." 

me when you are troubled," and " I will come to you" 
(John xiv. 18). "You shall know," even when I am 
gone up into Heaven, " that you are in me and I in you" 
(John xiv. 20). And the repeated promises of the pres- 
ence of the " Comforter" to sustain them in their con- 
flict with the world's hatred — what else does this signify 
but this abiding presence with them to the end of time ? 
And this bond of union, that was to keep not only those 
who heard Him together in the closest unity, but those 
also " who should believe in their word " — the whole 
Church, — " I in them and they in Me, that they may be 
made perfect in one," — all this can have but one explana- 
tion, and that is the explanation of her constitution given 
by the Church in every age. 

She was to be forever guided, assisted, comforted, and 
united by the abiding presence of God's Holy Spirit. 

Once this is understood, it follows as a necessity that 
this supernatural life and energy can never be inactive. 
It must show itself in the great function of the teaching 
Church to the end of time. And how can this energy 
more fittingly manifest itself than in the development 
of these great mysteries contained in the Deposit of the 
Faith? 

" Here," as Cardinal Newman well observes, " is at 
once an answer to the objections urged by Anglicans 
against the present teaching of Rome ; and not only an 
answer to objections, but a positive argument in its favor ; 
for the immutability and uninterrupted action of the laws 
in question throughout the course of Church history is a 
plain note of identity between the Catholic Chnrch of 
the first ages and that which now goes by that name." 
("Anglican Difficulties," vol i. p. 395.) 



"MODERN ROMISH CORRUPTIONS." 295 

It seems to me that this most effectually answers any 
objections to modern forms of devotion in the Church. 

Granted that they are not in all respects exactly like 
the forms of worship in primitive times (there is cer- 
tainly, when the Liturgies are examined, nothing ap- 
proaching the likeness to be found outside the Catholic 
Church) ; granted that there are slight differences, for 
example, between the way Mass is celebrated at the pres- 
ent time and when the Holy Sacrifice was offered up in 
the Catacombs ; that there is a difference in the manner 
of administering the Holy Communion ; and that Catho- 
lics are not now allowed to carry the Blessed Sacrament 
to their houses, as they were in the early days. All such 
changes as these do not in the least affect the essentials 
of the form of worship, which it is clear, from the earliest 
Liturgies, was necessarily associated, as it is now, with 
the belief in a Real Presence and the offering up of an un- 
bloody sacrifice. 

Granted that there was not in the primitive times the 
Forty Hours' Adoration, or Benediction of the Blessed 
Sacrament : is there anything in these devotions that con- 
tradicts or jars with the Faith of the most early days ? 

In the time of persecutions, and when the " discipline 
of the secret " was found necessary, there could not be 
these outward manifestations of piety. 

The Devotion of the Sacred Heart was unknown in 
Apostolic times, but the substance of this Devotion was 
recognized in practice from the days when Christ lived 
upon earth, and Mary Magdalene bathed His sacred feet 
with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 

In the middle ages, as Father Ryder proves, there were 
devotions to the Sacred Hands and Feet of our Lord. 



296 "MODERN ROMISH CORRUPTIONS.'* 



The instincts of Catholic piety, guided and controlled by 
the abiding Spirit of Truth, are always the same. While 
the formal reason of the worship of the Sacred Humanity 
will be always unchanged, viz., the intimate and per- 
petual union with the Divinity, pious Catholics will find 
a special devotion in rendering their homage to the Sacred 
Heart, or the pierced Hands and Feet, or the Head 
crowned with thorns, or the sacred Face impressed for 
the comfort of Faith, or the towel presented to the 
Saviour by St. Veronica, as He went forth to death. 

It seems to me, that any non-Catholic who believes in 
the mystery of the Incarnation, as it is explained by the 
Catholic Church in the creed of St. Athanasius, namely, 
that in their Divine Redeemer there is no divided Christ, 
and but one personality ; that the Body and Soul to 
which the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity united 
Himself in the womb of the Virgin had no other person- 
ality ; and that consequently Mary is really " Theotohos" 
or "the Mother of God" — cannot reasonably or consist- 
ently find fault with any Dogma, or Definition, or form 
of worship, or festival, that will bring out more distinctly 
the true doctrine. 

The only reason he could urge against the novelty 
would be that these gradually developed forms might, 
through indiscreet zeal, be carried to excess, and disturb 
true Devotion. As long as they do not injure Faith, 
but, on the contrary, tend to bring out more clearly 
what Faith teaches, and as long as they are regulated by 
the teaching body guided by the Holy Spirit, and sub- 
ject to the " Magisterium" or government of the Su- 
preme Pastor, whose special office it is " to confirm the 
Faith of the brethren," there can be no plausible grounds 
for apprehension. 



"MODERN ROMISH CORRUPTIONS." 297 

If Mary is now proclaimed Immaculate, no harm is 
done to Faith ; but Faith, on the contrary, is confirmed 
by the special honor paid to her who has been, from the 
beginning of the warfare of heresy, the special guardian 
of the mystery of the Incarnation. 

Every mystery of revealed trnth rests on this; and 
therefore the Church, in declaring her Immaculate, has, 
in these evil days of unbelief, only paid a special honor 
to her, "by whom" (as the Church loves to sing) "all 
the heresies in the world have been crushed." 

It would be well for those who are ever inveighing 
against " Romish corruptions," to examine carefully, and 
without prejudice, whether or not these supposed " cor- 
ruptions" have not tended to develop and sustain true 
Faith. 

In the Catholic Church alone is the Incarnation be- 
lieved in all its plenitude, as it was when, in the Council 
of Ephesus, Mary was hailed as " Mother of God." 
Now that Mary is proclaimed Immaculate, the Holy 
Virgin seems to rise from the position of " the lowly 
handmaid of the Lord," and to become, as Cardinal 
Newman says, "the high and strong defence of the 
Holy One of Israel," and to throw her arms around her 
Divine Son and to protect him from insult. She is the 
true " tower of David " in her fair beauty — in her purity 
and in her affliction, a power that pleads more irresistibly 
for respect and veneration for " the Man of sorrows," to 
those whose hearts are not brutalized by " the pride of 
life," than even the might and majesty of kings. And 
every devotion and form of prayer that reminds us of 
the Immaculate Conception is, instead of a " corruption" 
of true Faith, a tribute of loving homage to the Saviour 
of the world. 



298 



CONCLUSION. 



CONCLUSION. 

HEIST I look back on what I have written, one 
thought seems to absorb all the rest that crowd 
upon me, — as to whether the book will be read or cared 
for ; whether it will do good to anxious souls, or throw 
them back into greater perplexity ; whether it may serve 
the interests of Faith, Hope, and Charity, or extinguish in 
many the feeble glimmerings of these Yirtues, — and that 
one absorbing thought is, how weakly I have expressed the 
conviction which fills my soul of the perfect simplicity 
and security and comfort of the Catholic Rule of Faith. 

This Rule seems to me so clear and evident, that I won- 
der I have not been able to put the matter more plainly. 
It might be compassed in a few pages, and yet I have 
written so many simply to point out what Dr. Milner so 
well calls " the end of controversy," and Father Mum- 
ford " the question of questions. 5 ' 

My only comfort is that I have endeavored, to the best 
of my ability, to bring the subject home to the serious 
consideration of such of my readers as have never before 
entertained it. With this end in view, I have labored 
to enter into their inmost thoughts, in the hope that by 
putting their difficulties plainly and forcibly, more forci- 
bly perhaps than these difficulties ever presented them- 
selves to the minds of non-Catholic readers, they might 
be led to ponder on this all-important subject. 

The whole question is after all in a nut-shell. All 
Christians admit the necessity of a Revelation ; and the 




CONCLUSION. 



299 



fact also that a Revelation has been made, and that the 
record of this Revelation is contained in the sacred 
Scriptures. If the written Word of God would of itself 
explain the full meaning of the Divine message, and an- 
swer all doubts as to this true meaning, the matter might 
rest there. But when it is manifest the letter is deaf 
and dumb, and in fact dead to all inquiries, no matter how 
pressing and how earnest ; that it is absolutely passive 
under the most animated and learned discussions ; and 
that, as a fact, the doubtful meaning has completely frus- 
trated the grand design of Christ, begetting " quarrels, 
dissensions, and sects," instead of that supernatural unity 
of belief for which He so earnestly prayed, then thought- 
ful and reasoning Christians must of necessity ask them- 
selves, where is the safe and unerring guide that is to 
tell them the true meaning of God's written Word ? 

It is as clear as the light of the noonday sun, that 
there is no other guide but the teaching Church " spread 
throughout the world and in communion with the See of 
Rome." ISTo other Church or congregation, however 
cogently it feels the necessity of this safe guidance in 
order to produce Divine Faith, dares to claim it. 

Once admit the necessity of this guidance, and then 
immediately it is evident that the old Church established 
by Christ on Peter could never, under any circumstances, 
lead men of good will into error ; and consequently that 
it still holds, and will hold to the consummation of the 
world, the exclusive right to teach with infallible author- 
ity the true meaning of the Divine message. 

This is the whole argument ; and all I have written is 
meant only to remove the dust which obscures its force 
and simplicity. 

Suppose it is argued, — " Could not men left to their 



300 



CONCLUSION. 



own lights have found a way out of the difficulty, by 
taking np the main or fundamental truths of Revelation 
admitted by all, and of which there can be no doubt, and 
reasoning them out to their entire satisfaction ?" 

The answer to this supposition is obvious : there are no 
truths no matter how clearly revealed that carry convic- 
tion to the minds of those disposed to question or deny 
them. The Unity and Trinity of God, the Incarnation, 
Death and Resurrection of the Saviour, the atonement, 
the future state, have in every age, and never perhaps 
more than in the present, been the subject of serious and 
angry discussion. 

If men say, surely no one will doubt the existence of 
one God, the supreme and sovereign Lord and Creator 
of all things, they will be met by the clamorous shouts of 
denial from all quarters where free-thought and private 
interpretation of the sacred Scriptures are carried out to 
their logical consequences. Putting aside the irrational 
views of Atheism, what will not Agnosticism and Panthe- 
ism and Realism and all the other isms that play fast 
and loose with free-thought Christianity, have to say on 
this point ? 

The troubled and anxious inquirer who disregards the 
Church, will be told by thousands of able and learned 
men, aud in tens of thousands of powerfully written 
books, that this is the very question which most of all 
exercises the human reason. 

And if, in reply to the arguments thrust upon him from 
every side in essays and reviews and magazines and 
journals, he ventures to quote well-remembered texts of 
Scripture, he will be ridiculed as one behind the progress 
of the age, which has learned by experience to see in all 
these texts only mere allegories or figments of oriental 



CONCLUSION. 



301 



imagery. " You fool," will say to him the prophets and 
guides of public opinion, "how can yon be so stupid as 
to fancy for a moment that the eternal energy of nature 
is to be reduced to the contemptible anthropomorphic 
notions of a Divine Being, which you have picked up 
from the debasing traditions of the dark ages ?" 

Should he venture, on the strength of passages taken 
from the written Word, to say anything about the Divine 
nature, and the Trinity of Persons, how shall his indi- 
vidual convictions enable him to bear up against the flood 
of scorn and ridicule that will be poured out upon him 
by the philosophers of the day. " How," they say, " can 
you talk of the Infinite and the Eternal, — you who cannot 
know either by reason or experience even the meaning of 
these terms which you merely prattle like a parrot, with- 
out the consciousness of any meaning ? Three Persons 
actually distinct and yet one ! Absurd, do you not know, 
if yon have not lost every gleam of intelligence, that one 
is not three, and that three can never be one ? It is all 
mere figures of speech that have distorted your reason- 
ing faculties. These peculiar properties of force and 
energy which you see stamped on nature in all its opera- 
tions, in science, in society, in the family, in the stone 
beneath your feet, as in the highest triumphs of mathe- 
matical knowledge, three in one, — length, breadth and 
depth, the father, the mother and the child, the ruler, the 
ruled and the intermediate government, the circum- 
ference, the centre and the radius, the three sides of the 
triangle, — in all you have these qualities essentially dis- 
tinct, and yet forming one indivisible something : this is 
the origin of all these childish notions about the Divine 
nature. Head your Scriptures with the spectacles of 
science, and then you will see how crafty men have 



302 



CONCLUSION. 



deceived you, that they might rule you as the slaves of 
superstition." 

And if the poor bewildered Bible-guided Christian 
ventures further to speak of Jesus, and His love for man- 
kind, and the atonement, and the hopes of Heaven 
through the merits of His Saviour, how will faint-hearted, 
doubting, individual Faith built on mystic phrases, the 
meaning of which he knows only from what he has heard 
from others as weak and fallible as himself, sustain him 
in this conflict with the learning of an unbelieving world 
which scoffs at the very idea of the atonement \ 

It is useless to press the argument farther. ~No man 
who is really in earnest in his desire to reason out his 
Faith, however derived outside the Church, can success- 
fully battle with the impiety of the present age. 

If one thus sorely tried will say to himself, " I will pray 
to my Maker for wisdom to read aright His inspired 
message," and does pray accordingly, will not the words 
of prayer die upon his lips as he looks round him and 
sees, in the history of the past vagaries of private judg- 
ment, and the wild theories of the present, the natural 
outcome of mere unreasoning sentiment ? 

But that one fears to extinguish, by plain outspoken 
words, the feeble glimmerings of a pious fragmentary 
faith, how easy it would be to point out, in language in- 
telligible to all, the emptiness of the lamp which is sup- 
posed to sustain it ! 

I know well that even fragmentary Faith is better than 
none at all, and that this flickering light may with God's 
supernatural grace enable those who are severely tried by 
the temptations of bold unbelief to find their way to the 
feet of the unseen God : surely those who act in co-opera- 
tion with the common grace of prayer will obtain that 



CONCLUSION. 



303 



supernatural aid for the securing of which prayer itself 
was given. As long as there is an earnest desire for more 
light, it will come at last, even at the eleventh hour. 

God forbid that I should say one word to rob a Faith 
like this of its little vitality ! nor would I have ventured 
to indicate the dangers of private judgment, as I have 
done in the course of this book, but because I see clearly 
that the time is fast drawing nigh when, through Godless 
education, and the impious literature of the day so widely 
spread, young people will be ashamed to pray, and for- 
get God altogether. 

If such as these have no ground to fall back upon but 
their own poor notions of the meaning of God's Word, 
and that their traditional or fragmentary Faith is reduced, 
by contact with daring impiety, to a mere " perhaps," or 
the state of the unfortunate sailor, so often recorded, who, 
in his terror of impending shipwreck, cried out, " O 
God, if there is a God, have mercy on my soul, if I have 
a soul !" it will be a bad day for those when some strong 
passion will assail their expiring belief. 

It must miserably perish; and then there will be 
nothing left in the soul but that remorse of conscience 
which a merciful God has made the offspring of sin itself, 
the sinner's peculiar grace, that never entirely dies, but 
can never grow into a real help, when there is no Faith 
to sustain it — remorse of conscience which, without even 
the grace of prayer to give it healthy life, must, sooner or 
later, end in blank despair and reckless self-destruction. 

I see so clearly that a blight of this kind is coming on 
the wretched world that I cannot resist the impulse to 
raise a cry of warning. Weak and feeble as it is, it may 
yet reach, through this book, some fainting souls strug- 



304 



CONCLUSION. 



gling with unbelief, and prove to them "a cup of 
strength in some great agony." 

If what I have written will prove a word in season 
even to one or two who already feel, even in early life, 
the misery of a hopeless existence, and cause them to 
think, and then to say with Goethe, " More light," or, with 
the great Cardinal whose words I have so often quoted, 
to pray, "Lead kindly, gentle light," then will I feel 
that all my labor has not been in vain. 

If, in reasoning out the argument for the necessity of 
an Infallible guide in order to have Divine Faith, I have 
been hard on the belief of Christians who will not hear 
the Church, I can only say that this apparent harshness is 
an absolute necessity of the case. 

If the principle for which I contend be certain, then 
every principle, no matter how well sustained by learn- 
ing, and respectability, and high position, and education, 
that is contrary to what is absolutely certain, must be 
false. There can be no doubt whatever on this point. 
Truth is essentially opposed to error. It is not as if the 
case stood thus : there is a certain amount of truth in this 
religious system of authority, and also in the theory of 
free-thought and individual judgment ; and both, when 
calmly and dispassionately considered, may be reconciled. 

~No such reconciliation is possible, and there is no via 
media between them. If a man is clearly bound to obey 
a certain visible authority, he cannot at the same time be 
at perfect liberty to rebel against that authority. Chris- 
tianity teaches that obedience to legitimate rule is "not 
for wrath, but for conscience' sake" (Rom. xiii. 6). And 
where there is question of truth, the conscientious obliga- 
tion of accepting it in all its integrity rises above all the 
sophistries of human passion or deep-rooted prejudice. 



CONCLUSION. 



305 



There niay of course be place for error that is excus- 
able. And throughout the book I have carefully pointed 
out where such excusable disobedience and rebellion may 
be supposed reasonably and fairly to exist. No one can 
safely say to what extent ignorance that is called invin- 
cible prevails amongst non-Catholic Christian peoples. 
All we know is that national prejudices long fostered by 
ardent feeling, and associated with bitter traditional dis- 
likes and hatred of everything opposed to them, are com- 
mon and wide-spread, and, humanly speaking, insur- 
mountable. 

It is very difficult for those who have been born and 
brought up in the " one Fold," and have lived constantly 
amidst Catholics, to form a correct idea of the ignorant 
yet profound prejudices against the Church which ani- 
mate the great mass of the people in countries that are 
mostly Protestant. 

Everything connected with Popery is an abomination 
in their eyes ; and they would almost as soon doubt the 
fact of their own existence as that this hateful object of 
the national feeling could be anything but the heap 
of corruption they, and their fathers before them for 
three hundred years, have ever believed it to be. 

~No one understands this better than the distinguished 
men whose words I have so often quoted in the preced- 
ing chapters. Before their conversion, even almost up 
to the time when they were received into the Church, 
both Cardinal Newman and Cardinal Manning shared to 
the full in these traditional prejudices. The former 
clung to the long-cherished notion that the Pope was 
Antichrist, even when he was near the point of making 
his submission to the Pope's Infallible authority. And 
Cardinal Manning, speaking of the almost incredible illu- 



306 



CONCLUSION. 



sions that prevail amongst the Protestant population m 
England with reference to the Catholic Church, declares 
that, for the greater part of his life, he fully shared 
them. " It may seem incredible," he says, " that such 
an illusion" — that the Catholic Church is corrupt, and 
has changed the doctrines of the Faith — " exists. But 
it is credible to me, because for nearly forty years of my 
life I was fully possessed by this erroneous belief." (" Eng- 
land and Christendom," page 97.) 

And he goes on to say — " To all such persons it is 
morally difficult, in no small degree, to discover the false- 
hood of the illusion. All the better parts of their nature 
are engaged in its support : dutif ulness, self-mistrust, 
submission, respect for others older, better, more learned 
than themselves, all combine to form a false conscience 
of the duty to refuse to hear anything against ' the re- 
ligion of their fathers, 5 'the Church of their baptism,' 
or to read anything which could unsettle them. Such 
people are told that it is their duty to extinguish a doubt 
against the Church of England, as they would extinguish 
a temptation against their virtue. A conscience so sub- 
dued and held in subjection exercises true virtues upon a 
false object, and renders to a human authority the sub- 
missive trust which is due to the Divine voice of the 
Church of God." (Ibid. 98.) 

God alone knows how far such as these are excusable. 
The great Catholic principle which should guide us in 
this delicate matter, is that laid down by St. James — 
" To him, therefore, who knoweth to do good and doeth 
it not, to him it is sin" (James iv. 17). 

Of course, what I have said about this excusable igno- 
rance applies to Protestants of all denominations. If 
they are excusable before God for these strong preju- 



CONCLUSION". 



307 



dices, and do all that is in their power to serve God faith- 
fully, they will surely be helped in some way to find out 
the truth ; for it is an axiom that " to those who do all 
they can G-od never refuses His grace," and the Apostle 
says, " God will have all men to be saved, and to come 
to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. ii. 4). 

I would only add that what I have said about the prob- 
able extent of excusable ignorance regards mainly the un- 
educated classes. Those who read and have the means 
of inquiry, and who know something of the position and 
claims of the everlasting Church, are bound to satisfy 
their minds as to the reality or falsity of these claims. 
If they are careless and indifferent, and think it is much 
more simple, and more manly, to feed their prejudices, 
and to join with the ignorant multitude in abusing the 
Catholic Church, of course they can please themselves ; 
but a day will surely come when the bright light of God's 
presence at the awful judgment will try the sincerity and 
reasonableness of such purposes. 

Probably the pious old Scotchwoman who, as Irving 
tells us, was displeased with the Queen for having ridden 
out on a Sunday, was quite satisfied with her own infal- 
lible judgment on Sabbath observance : no doubt she was, 
for she appears to have thought her judgment superior 
to that of our Divine Lord Himself. Because when 
they told her that He plucked ears of wheat on the Sab- 
bath, she said, " Ah, yes, I ken all about that ; and I 
dinna think any the better of Him for it." 

Prejudices may evidently be carried to excess; and 
there are many learned people who are just as unreason- 
able in their condemnation of Catholic worship and Cath- 
olic practices as was this very pious old woman. 

When I think of the strong expressions which liberal- 



308 



CONCLUSION. 



minded Protestants often apply to the exposition of the 
great mysteries by the Church, and the manner in which 
she encourages her children to honor them, I am almost 
convinced, if they were brought to understand that 
the teaching Church of Christ could not deceive us, that 
then their prejudices would turn on Christ Himself. 
They would almost say, for example, if it is true that 
Christ is really present at the Benediction of the Blessed 
Sacrament and in the Holy Mass, He ought never to have 
so demeaned Himself ; and such a state of humiliation is 
quite unbecoming in the Most High. 

I may here say why it is I have so constantly quoted 
from the works of the two English Cardinals, rather than 
from profound theologians who were born and brought 
up in the Catholic Church. I have done so for several 
reasons. Because the testimony of these distinguished 
men, once Protestant to the back-bone, and understanding 
better perhaps than any living man the real state of the 
question, as between the Catholic Eule of Faith, and 
that in which they had trusted so many years, should de- 
servedly carry more weight with those whose -strong 
prejudices would prevent them from paying the least at- 
tention to the statements of theologians, who had not 
the full opportunities of seeing all the charms which the 
adherents of Protestantism believe her to possess, and 
who besides were " bewitched " with Papistical ideas. 

I hope that my book will have at least some Protestant 
readers. They who value so highly the peculiar charm 
of freedom of thought, and the right to judge for them- 
selves, will surely not share in the narrow-minded view 
of the Grahamstown parson, who boasted that he had 
never looked into a Popish book. " Audi alteram par- 
tem " is a principle which in these latter days has been 



CONCLUSION. 



309 



brought into more practical application than ever it was 
before in the history of the world. Constitutional forms 
of government, from the parish vestry and the munici- 
palities of small towns to the high chambers of the rep- 
resentatives of an empire or a republic, involve the 
necessity of looking not only at both sides of every ques- 
tion — the yes or the no — but all around it. Hence I 
felt bound to consult the natural prejudices of this class 
of possible readers. 

Then there is a charm in the polished style which at- 
tracts attention, and in the wonderful lucidity with which 
both these remarkable teachers always lay their doctrines 
before the public. It seems no effort to them. The 
most sublime mysteries, the most exalted morality, the 
highest principles of action are set forth with a facil- 
ity which astonishes, and with a purity of language which 
will make their writings the future classics of all coun- 
tries where the English language is spoken. 

Our learned theologians have written chiefly for the 
learned, and in a language poi3iilarly called the language of 
the learned, and therefore inaccessible to the general 
public. If I quoted from the works of a St. Thomas, or 
a St. Augustine, or a Suarez, or a De Lugo, there are 
few who could have the opportunity of consulting the 
books of these learned authors, either to verify the quo- 
tations or to pursue the subject. Whereas the books of 
the two cardinals are easily accessible ; and the glimpses 
I have given of their beauties may invite a further ac- 
quaintance with their productions, and the cultivation of 
a friendship that will have lasting and beneficial results. 

Another reason is that these distinguished men are 
living witnesses of the peculiar state of thought in the 
present age, and of the wild theories and strange guesses 



310 



CONCLUSION. 



regarding the most important interests of mankind, which 
it never entered into the minds of the learned doctors of 
" the ages of Faith " to conceive as possible. 

~No one will think of saying, that these eminent writers 
did not understand the most favored notions of High- 
Churchmen of the day — " the branch theory the fanci- 
ful conceit of a British National Church coeval with Apos- 
tolic times ; the grandiose speculation on the three great 
Churches of primeval times in which the Anglo-Catholic 
is, with amazing pretension, set alongside of the great 
Churches of the East and West ; the "filioque " question ; 
and the fine critical points about the independent teaching 
of St. Cyprian, and the various historical questions con- 
nected with the supposed heresy of Pope Honorius and 
Liberius ; and the long-exploded nonsense about Pope 
Joan ; and the forgeries and deceitful interpolations intro- 
duced into the acts of Councils and Pontifical decrees. 

Much of their valuable time was wasted in hunting up 
the records of these grand points ; and one can imagine 
with what contempt for the whole finical dust-exciting 
splutter, these great minds gave up the study in pure 
disgust. 

If onr Divine Lord meant that His little children, and 
the poor and uneducated, who belong to this class, were to 
spend their lives in the theological analysis of this huge 
mass of puerilities, we are at a loss to know what He 
meant when He blessed the great Eternal Father that the 
poor had the Gospel preached to them. Calm and tran- 
quil Faith and confidence in His teaching, and the charity 
that ever grows from the pious contemplation of "the 
good tidings" of salvation, would be as far beyond their 
reach, as the scientific theories of the leaders of progress, 



CONCLUSION. 



311 



and the metaphysical elaborations of a Spencer or a 
Harrison. 

I often note with a keen sense of enjoyment, which 
afterwards excites painful scruples arising from the 
gravity of the subject, how the parsons, who are very 
angry about these distinguished men leaving the Church 
of England to join the one true Fold, watch their every 
movement and exj3ression of opinion, in the hope of find- 
ing a symptom of regret for having taken this step. 
Many have so often stated that they were sure to return 
freed from the delusion that led them to trust in Rome, 
and conscious of their folly, that they have seriously in- 
jured the cause they were vainly hoping to serve, and 
have left on the public mind an impression that bitter 
prejudice can lead even the learned and the godly to 
blacken the purest motives and the most disinterested 
sacrifices. I have known some who had gone so far as to 
declare on the evidence of " trifles light as air" that these 
illustrious converts had actually expressed then* regret 
for having joined the Catholic Church. The solemn 
declarations of Cardinal Newman of the happiness and 
peace of mind he has found in the bosom of the Church, 
and his gratitude to God for the great grace bestowed 
upon him, will hardly silence such worthies as these. 
God forgive them if, on grounds that are so clearly mere 
fabrications, they have endeavored to keep trusting and 
simple souls from following so glorious an example ! 
Would that those who asperse those noble characters who, 
like Cardinal Newman and Cardinal Manning, have re- 
nounced all that this world holds dear, to satisfy the voice 
of conscience, might learn, from their disinterestedness, 
to give up all regard to human respect and the good 
opinion of the world, for the sake of Jesus Christ ! 



312 



CONCLUSION. 



Honest duty often requires painful sacrifices, and those 
who, besides, lacking the courage to make them, endeavor 
to justify to themselves and others their half -measures 
and vacillation between the vagaries of Ritualism and 
ultra protestations against Eome, can hardly expect grace 
from God, or respect from men, by silly attempts to blacken 
the reputation of men who have won the respect and 
admiration of the civilized and educated world. 



INDEX. 



Ab actu ad posse valet consecu- 
tio, 128. 

Abraham, his faith like Catholic, 
163. 

Abuse of Catholic Church and 
silly pretensions, 87. 

Acceptation of Dispersed Bish- 
ops not necessary to dogma 
of Faith, 258. 

Accusers of Church betray their 
own weakness, 117. 

Active and passive conception, 
270. 

Agnes and Fabiola — "Shall I 

lose all?" 130. 
Albigenses, 93. 

Anglicanism, basis of, 208 ; Angli- 
can Church notions, 235; Car- 
dinal Manning's strong doctrine 
on, 240. 

Anglican clergy undertaking to 

answer for those who confide 

in them, 210. 
Apparitions and Catholic Faith 

concerning them, 122. 
Apes and Darwinian theory, 46, 

47. 

Aping at Catholic ceremonial, 27. 

A priori and a posteriori argu- 
ments, must confine mj^self to 
former, 72; latter destroys 
peace, 222; will not touch it, 
220, 239, 248; what Cardinals 
Newman and Manning thought 
of a posteriori or historical 
objections, 310. 

Aquinas, St. Thomas, and St. Au- 
gustine meeting scientists, 44. 

Arian, the whole world affected 
by, 261. 



Arguing against fact, 32. 

Argument against miracles, one 
fact destroys them, 111. 

Argument, a priori and a poste- 
riori, 23, 33, 34, 72, 220, 222; 
sound principles regarding, 
189, 238, 248. 

Argument put plainly for simple 
Faithful," 70. 

Arthington, 100. 

Arts, fine, degeneracy of, 40, 41. 
Atonement, 22. 

Atheism, how boldly talked in 

these days, 197, 198. 
Athanasius, his condemnation, 

Cardinal Newman upon, 263, 

264. 

Authoritative teaching not in- 
volve slavery, 68, 84. 

Authoritative teaching, Divine, 
not outside Church, 199, 205; 
Cardinal Manning on, 205.. 

Authoritative teaching in Church 
of England rests on Rational- 
ism, 207. 

Authoritative teaching, Divine, 
shut off by rejection of Infalli- 
bility, 208. 

Authority, Divine, cannot be in- 
voked by non-Catholics, 158. 

Authority, pretensions to, 29. 

Avarice, fruit of selfishness, am- 
bition, 183, 184. 

Avelling, Edward, his teaching, 
167. 

Balaam, 215. 

"Baptism, Church of," what it 

means, 210. 
Beaconsfield, Lord, on atheism, 54. 



314 



INDEX. 



Beads or Rosary, 142, 143. 

"Belief, Catholic," 97. 

Belief in mysteries no mockery, 
163; belief in supernatural, 
chief objection to Infallibility, 
214. 

Benediction of Blessed Sacra- 
ment, Cardinal Newman on, 
139. 

Benevolence and charity, 184. 

Bible reading in schools, 58; 
reading of, not opposed by 
Catholic Church, 56; in col- 
leges imperative, 57; Cardinal 
Newman on, 60; impossibility 
of agreement from, 61; a farce 
and a delusion, 62. 

Bibles, indiscriminate scattering 
of, a huge mistake, 59; one of 
the chief causes of unbelief, 60 ; 
dangers of scattering, 155. 

Bible, stay and comfort of many, 
55 

Bishop Berkeley, 112. 

Bishop checks error, 246; Bish- 
op's judicial power not af- 
fected by Papal Infallibility, 
256; Bishop Ullathorne, 260; 
Bishops as judges, 237. 

Bockhold of Leyden, 99. 

Bold words, 193; do not mince 
matters, 207. 

Bossuet, his argument weak, 252; 
quotation from, on Immaculate 
Conception, 272. 

Bottalla, Father, on Infallibility, 
257. 

Bradlaugh and Ingersoll, 157. 

Brandt, his testimony, 99. 

Brethren-sect, 116. 

Bryairites sect, 96. 

" Bull, John, and his Island," 91. 

Caiphas, 215. 

Calvinism at death, 170. 

Canonization process, 127. 

Cardinals Dechamps, Manning, 
and New T man — first quoted, 
271, 281; second quoted, 85, 
158, 182, 207, 214, 217, 218, 
304, 305, 311; third quoted, 60, 
67, 69, 76, 118, 136, 139, 141, 



202, 211, 263, 268, 292, 305, 
308, 311. 

Catholic Church requires all to be 
" unius labii," 226. 

Catholic Faith at approach of 
death, 170; warns us against 
presumption, 175. 

Catholics will believe anvthing, 
118, 121; Catholics and Good 
Templars, 95, 96; not taught to 
confide in works, 177; expect 
supernatural manifestations, 
121, uot required to have Faith 
in them, 124, in simplest form, 
65, 298. 

Catholic Rule of Faith solid, 114; 
Catholic name exclusive, 236; 
Catholic Church, definition of, 
236; Catholic Church defining 
not go beyond Deposit of Faith, 
228. 

Chair of Peter, 252. 

Changes in these days, 197. 

Charity, Divine, not founded on 
natural motives, 182; seeketh 
not her own, 183; of early 
Christians, 183; destroyed by 
selfishness, 184; not violating 
by bold words, 193. 

Chatterton and ranting, 90. 

Christ made us free, 85; cannot 
violate His word, 105; honored 
by all Christians, 102; could 
have granted Infallibility, 219. 

Christianity has leavened the 
world, 166. 

Church of En aland renounces 
Infallibility, 200. 

Comparison of pagan philoso- 
phers and those of to-day, 43. 

Conference, Wesleyan, standards 
human, 29; Daniel O'Connell 
on, 30. 

Confession as it is, 134; Cardinal 
Newmian on, 136. 

Contradictions to primeval teach- 
ing in non-Catholic doctrine, 
288, 289. 

Conversion of Lord Ripon, 75. 

Conversation in railway carriage 
on Eternity of Punishment, 83. 

Coppinger, 100, 



INDEX. 



315 



Councils, General, effect of, 237, 
238; not decide without con- 
sidering doctrine received be- 
fore, 239; difficulty of holding, 
262; appeal to, forbidden, 263. 

Credentials of Church, reason- 
able inquiry to be made into, 69. 

Credibility of doctrine, Locke's 
system, 208. 

Credulity of non- Catholics, 117; 
contrast of Catholic teaching 
and non-Catholic, 120. 

Criticism, newspaper, 43. 

Curry, Dr., Wesleyan, remark- 
able statement, 156. 

Danger to society if strong arm 
of civil power relaxed, 166. 

Darwinian theory, eye-tooth and 
flexibility of ear-rim, 46, 47. 

Deacon Philip, 31. 

Definition of Catholic Church, 
236; of Infallibility, 248; of 
Immaculate Conception, 272. 

Degeneracy of fine arts in these 
days, 41. 

Degrading servitude of private 
judgment, 234. 

Deprivation of original grace, 
original sin, 269. 

Development, editors ignorant 
of, 147; ineffably cogent argu- 
ment of Dr. Newman, 292. 

Difficulties of free-thought un- 
answerable outside Catholic 
Church, 22. 

Disbelief in the supernatural 
general characteristic of the 
age, 208. 

Dispersed Church, acceptation of 
Definition of Pope not neces- 
sary, 261. 

Disputes in schools of theology, 
188. 

Dives in the parable, 173. 
Doctrinal development preceded 
by trials and heresy, 291. 

Eagerness to grasp at anything 
against Eternity of Punish- 
ment, 171. 

Earnest liberal non-Catholics, 132. 



Ecclesia docens, what it is, 237. 

Editors, non- Catholic, on Im- 
maculate Conception, 146; de- 
velopment 147, 283. 

Effects of material progress on 
supernatural Faith, 216. 

Eliasites, 97. 

Encyclical of Pius IX. on Im- 
maculate Conception, 273. 

Eternal happiness unreal with- 
out reasonable Faith, 167. 

Eternal Hope of Canon Farrar, 
171. 

Eternity of rewards and punish- 
ments, 24; disputation about, 
83; merely human speculation 
in non-Catholics, 168. 

Ethiopian, his difficulty, and 
Deacon Philip, 31. 

Evidences of design in nature, 
53. 

Example of Philosophic Doctor, 
127. 

Example of pious non-Catholic 
Faith, 115. 

Ex cathedra declarations, how 
known, 264, 265. 

Extremes in matter-of-fact saga- 
city, 128. 

Fabiola, extracts from, 130, 145, 
148. 

Fact a fact always, 217. 

Faith, one true, 104; solid ground 
of, 114; Faith, pious, 115; may 
grow into conviction, 116; 
obedience of, 118; not required 
in apparitions, 122; reasonable, 
impossible outside Catholic 
Church, 152; earnest, to a cer- 
tain extent possible outside 
Catholic Church, 153; resolved 
when sorely tried into Rational- 
ism, 153; Faith, pious, not 
unnecessarily to be disturbed, 
154; reasonable, necessary, 174; 
Faith, Divine, in plenitude be- 
yond reach of non-Catholics, 
67; Faith and Hope, difference 
between, 169; source of Charity 
impossible in corrupt Church, 
190; Faith, pious, not to be 



316 



INDEX. 



touched but for necessities of 
times, 202 ; Rule of, in simplest 
form, 213, 298; fragmentary, 
better than none at all, 302. 
Farrar, Canon, and eternal Hope, 
171. 

Fashion, its laws, 27. 

Fearful responsibility of those 
who reject Infallible guide, 35. 

Festivals, new, in Catholic 
Church, 288. 

Frankland,Rev.,Wesleyan minis- 
ter, 29. 

Free-thought and Rationalism 
the same, 167 ; on Eternity of 
Punishment merely human 
speculation, 168. 

"Frozen truth," the, 241. 

Gallic anism, 251. 

Gambling, form of selfishness, 184. 

George Fox, 100. 

German Rationalism, tendency 
to, in Anglican Church, 208. 

Gibbon's five causes and Dr. 
Newman, 54. 

Goethe, " More light," 37. 

Good Templary, 95. 

Governments of Europe alarmed 
at Papal Infallibility, 254; in- 
sidious arguments of, 255. 

Grahamstown Temperance meet- 
ing, 95. 

Greek Church, union with, by 
Anglicans impossible, 208; and 
Infallibility, 233. 

Guesses of the scientists, 19. 

Hackett, 100. 

Hard on belief of non- Catholics, 
302. 

"Hating each other for love of 

God," 187. 
Hebrew people following their 

own will, 179. 
Herman, 99. 

Hindoo and his idol, 120. 

Historical difficulties about In- 
fallibility, how regarded by 
Cardinals Newman and Man- 
ning, 310. 

Historical ground not entered on 



in this book, 248, St. Athana- 
sius merely touched on, 263. 

Holy Ghost, sin against. 36. 

Honor paid to God by unbound- 
ed Faith, 151. 

Hope, Catholic, contrasted with 
dreams of non-Catholics, 174, 
178; deceitful, 168; how beauti- 
ful, 174; old pagan, 165. 

Humanity, Religion of, necessaiy 
consequence of private judg- 
ment, 107. 

Humanum est errare, 109. 

Hume on miracles, 113. 

Humility according to non- Catho- 
lic notions, 134. 

Hurter on Sacred Heart quoted 
by Father Ryder, 286. 

Hypostatic union with Holy 
Ghost not involved in Papal 
Infallibility, 214, 215. 

Hysterics not "signs and por- 
tents," 125. 

Icarus, 50. 

Ignorant men may learn from 
educated — objection, 64. 

Illustration of mild form of 
private judgment, 77 ; of dan- 
gers to Faith, 154. 

Immaculate Conception, stupid 
notions of, 146; dogma ex- 
plains Incarnation, 148; Koran 
in favor of, 267; not concern 
Anna, 270; connection with 
original sin, 267; Mahomet 
in favor of, 267; Cardinal 
Newman on, 268; objection of 
Protestant minister to author, 
270 ; opinions of press on, 
282, 283 ; Active and Passive 
Conception, 270; Cardinal De- 
champs on, 271, 281; Bossuet 
on, 272; numerous applica- 
tions to have doctrine defined, 
273; Definition not due to 
vanity of Pope, 273; the De- 
finition of, 275; objection — 
that not found in the sacred 
Scriptures, 275; objection from 
St. Paul, 276; objection of 
a Catholic to author, 277 ; 



INDEX. 



317 



Bishop Ullatborne on, 279; 
why dispute about? 279; why 
Pope Pius denned it, 280; dog- 
ma not understood, 287. 
Impossibility of union in Faith 
from Bible reading, 61; illu- 
sion, 62. 

Incarnation, mystery of, 24; 
Fabiola, extract on, 145. 

Indifferent inquirers, 20. 

Indiscriminate scattering of 
Bibles huge mistake. 59. 

Infallibility, without it reason- 
able Faith impossible, 62; no 
Christian sect dares to claim 
it, 66; Cardinal Newman on 
this point, 67; a fundamental 
dogma, 106; no axiom good 
against, 111; renounced by 
Anglican Church, 200, 206; 
not claimed by sects, 204; 
want of belief in supernatural 
chief obstacle to, 213, 214; 
Definition of Papal, 248; 
Scriptural arguments briefly 
put, 250; figure of Church 
essentially opposed to Gallican 
hypothesis, 251; personal, no 
restraint on free-will, 214; 
constrained sinlessness not re- 
quired for, 215; nothing said 
about it in early Church, ob- 
jection, 244; built on rational- 
ism, objection, 244; guide in- 
accessible. 245 ; Bishop on the 
scene, 246; argument from 
Prophets in favor of personal 
Infallibility, 219; Dr. Whate- 
ly's argument against, 229; 
Active and Passive, 238; 
Greek Church on, and Wes- 
leyan, 234; Imperator et Pon- 
tifex of Greek Church, 234; 
Infallibility of Pope, not affect 
judicial power of Bishops, 256, 
257; Suarez on, 260. 

Infallible guide, responsibility 
of those who reject it, 31, 32; 
belongs to Church to lay down 
conditions of salvation, 105. 

Ingersoll, 157. 

Inquiry, obstacles to, 20, 21; 



reasonable, to be made, 69; 
all bound to make it, 197, 
Inspiration, individual, possible, 
109. 

Instantaneous justification and 
its fruits, 100. 

Interposition, Providential, no- 
tion of scientists, 126. 

Interpretation, private, human- 
izes Revelation, 33. 

Iphigenia, 169. 

Irish supposed credulity, 88. 

Israelites, Christian, 97. 

Jansenism and its pernicious 
effects, 253. 

Januarius, the miracle of, 123. 

Jarring sects cannot all be right, 
156, 157. 

Jews, their reverence for Old 
Testament, 58. 

Joanna Southcote and the Jump- 
ers, 92. 

Judgment, private, what it 
means, Cardinal Newman on, 
76; mild form of, 77; impossi- 
ble, 79, 80; affects lofty tone, 
84 ; real slavery of, 85. 

Judicial power of Bishops not 
affected by Papal Infallibility, 
256, 257. 

Jules Verne, 27. 

Kaffir witch-doctor, 88. 
Kindness, natural, not free from 
selfishness, 184. 

" Labii unius" (" of one mouth"), 
why Church requires it, 226. 

Labors of old philosophers in- 
teresting, 49, 50. 

Lacordaire on prejudice, 81, 223. 

Laserre and Lourdes, 126. 

Last prayer of our Divine Lord 
before His passion, 189. 

Laws of fashion despotic, 28. 

Learned names guard the quasi- 
philosophy of the day, 48. 

Leverrier, 27. 

Liberal earnest non-Catholics, 
135; liberal Protestant notions 
of Catholic worship, 130. 



318 



INDEX. 



Liberty, true, according to Car- 
dinal Manning, 85. 

Littledale, Dr., grave errors in 
his book against the Catholic 
Church, 284. 

Local preacher on Irish credu- 
lity, 87, 88. 

Locke's principle of credibility, 
208. 

Lord Beaconsfield, 54. 

"Loss and gain," 97. 

Love, purest, maybe selfish, 183; 
love that is in Christ Jesus may 
be destroyed by selfishness, 
184. 

Magistemum in Church checks 

indiscreet zeal, 296. 
Manning, Cardinal, quoted 85, 

158, 182, 207, 215, 217, 218, 

304, 305, 308, 310. 
Mass, sacrifice of, extract from 

Fabiola, 148. 
Material progress, effects of, 217. 
Meaning of the Revealed Word, 

the chief question, 22, 23. 
Miracles not expected by Protes- 
tants, 125. 
Mixed marriages, 185. 
Moliere and "Les Precieuses 

Ridicules," 49. 
Montanus, Maximilla, and Pris- 

cilla, 98. 
"More light," Goethe, 37. 
Mosheim, 99. 

"Mountains, can you move 
them?" 150. 

Mysteries of Trinity, Incarna- 
tion, Atonement, eternity of 
rewards and punishments, 24; 
reasonable explanation of, 
necessary where no Infallible 
guide, 23. 

Name, what's in a? 74. 
Nature, evidences of design in, 
53. 

Nearness of some to Catholic 
teaching not make them Cath- 
olics, 27. 

Necessity of teaching plain truth, 
116. 



Nestorius, 267. 

Newman, Cardinal, quoted, 60, 
67, 69, 74, 118, 136, 139, 141, 
202, 211, 263, 268, 292, 305, 
308, 310. 

Newspaper criticism: this is a 
thinking age ! 43. 

Nicholas and the Familists, 99, 
100. 

Notions of non- Catholics sup- 
posed to be liberal, 81. 
No via media, 84. 

Obstacles to inquiry, 20. 
O'Connell, Daniel, on the Wes- 

leyans, 30. 
Odium Theologicum destructive 

to domestic peace, 185. 
Old philosophers, their labors, 

49, 50. 

Old pious woman more sound 
in philosophy than scientists, 
43, 44. 

One form of religion as good as 
another, 104. 

Only two ways, 83; only one 
Protestant minister who said, 
' ' Follow your conscience, " 210. 

Opportunists on Infallibility, 256. 

Pagan philosophers, their de- 
pravity, 39, 165; comparison 
with philosophers of to-day, 42; 
their labors interesting, 49, 50. 

Paine's teaching, natural out- 
come of private judgment, 226. 

Pandora and the legend, 165. 

Papal Infallibility and Immacu- 
late Conception, 265. 

Passage from Isaias, 246. 

Pasteur, Dr., 42. 

Peace, their end was, 178; may 
be real, 180. 

"Peculiar People," 92. 

Perhaps, and sailor's prayer, 303. 

Peri, quotation from Moore, 41. 

Perplexity about plain speaking, 
197. 

Perrone on Definition, 273. 
Petitio principii, begging the 
question on Rule of Faith, 278. 
Pharisee and publican, 87. 



INDEX. 



319 



Philanthropy, 184. 

Philosophers of to-day, not de- 
serve name, 40. 

Philosophy of to-day guarded by 
great names, a sham, 48; not 
suited for public magazines, 
48, 49. 

Physical science, its pretensions, 
40; how lofty if well directed, 
42; how art elevated, 42. 

Pickwick and editor, 264. 

Pilate, 17. 

Pious Faith possible outside 
Catholic Church, 114; example 
of, 115; would not disturb it, 
154; not to be touched un- 
necessarily, 202; may grow 
into conviction, 116. 

Pious old Scotchwoman, 307. 

Plan of Christ to preserve union, 
186. 

Plato and Socrates, their errors, 
201. 

Pleasure of parent in confidence 
of child, 163, 164. 

Political dangers of Good Tem- 
plary, 96. 

Pontifex et Imperator, 234. 

Pope defining under sudden im- 
pulse, 258; not inspired, 260; 
why Pope Pius defined, 280. 

Pope Pius IX., devotion to B. V. 
Mary, 272; how know if teach- 
ing ex cathedra, 265. 

Prayers for dying, in Catholic 
Church, 176; no mere senti- 
ment, 176. 

Preaching and Chatterton, 90; 
Black-cap, 90. 

Prejudices, force of, 304; ex- 
cusable, 305; against Christ 
Himself, 308; against the two 
Cardinals, 311; of Cardinals 
Newman and Manning, 305; 
of educated classes, 307. 

Presence, Real, 63. 

Presumption, warning against, 
175. 

Pretension to authority, 29. 
Pride, selfish, 184. 
Primeval Revelation, 54. 
Private interpretation humanizes 



Revelation, 33; "private right 
of judgment," 74; what it 
means, 76; affects lofty tone, 84. 

Promisit, potuit, dedit, 220. 

Prophecy shows possibility of 
individual Infallibility, 109; 
about Christ evident, 109. 

Prophets, argument for Infalli- 
bility, 219. 

Protestants not expect miracles, 
125; liberal, on puerilities of 
Catholic worship, 130; ladies 
in garb of nuns, 198. 

Pusey, Dr., 214. 

"Quod semper, quod ubique, 
quod ab omnibus," 288. 

Rationalism, outcome of pious 
Faith, when sorely tried, 153; 
does not mince matters, 155; 
and free-thought the same, 
basis of authority in Church 
of England, 206, 207; German, 
208; foundation of Infalli- 
bility, objection, 244. 

Reading of Bible, 55, 56; in col- 
leges, 57; Cardinal Newman 
on, 60; not produce unity, 61. 

Realities and shams, 32. 

Real Presence, 63. 

Reason limited in spiritual 
things, 200; may demonstrate 
certain truths, 201; bound to 
use it, 223; impossible in way 
proposed, 223; reasonable in- 
quiry to be made, 69. 

Religion of England, 91; sects 
91 ; of Humanity, 107. 

Responsibility, fearful, in those 
who reject Infallibility, 35. 

Rest, none, now — all must in- 
quire, 198. 

Revelation, primeval, 54; found- 
ed on probabilities not Revela- 
tion, 64, 65. 

Reverence of Jews for Old Testa- 
ment, 58; reverent Faith pos- 
sible for non-Catholics, 153. 

Revivals, may they not effect 
good? 101 — Reaction, how con- 
trolled, 101. 



320 



INDEX. 



Ridicule justifiable, 28. 

Ridiculus mus, 49. 

Roland, Madame, 74. 

"Roma locuta est," 188. 

Rosary, not confined to igno- 
rant, 142; visitor at Maynooth, 
143. 

Rule of Catholic Faith in sim- 
plest form, 213; plain and 
simple, 65. 

Sacred Heart, 285. 

Sale on Koran regarding Imma- 
culate Conception, 266. 

Salvation, many necessarily ex- 
cluded on Protestant Rule, 
192, 193; Salvation Army, 93. 

" Saved, what must we do to be?" 
197, 211. 

Scandalizing little ones a great 
sin, 192. 

Science, physical, its preten- 
sions, 40. 
Scientific studies wisely directed 

pleasing to God, 51. 
"Search the Scriptures," mean- 
ing of passage, 71. 
Seat of authority in Anglican 

Church very doubtful, 235. 
Secret societies checked by De- 
finition of Papal Infallibility, 
256. 

" Securus judicat orbis terra- 
rum," effect on Cardinal New- 
man, 188. 

" See how Christians love one 
another," 187. 

Selfishness destroys charity, 184; 
directly opposed to love in 
Christ Jesus, 184; insidious, 
184, 185. 

Sense of difficult Scripture pas- 
sages not determined by fal- 
lible authority, 24. 

Shams and realities, 32. 

Shibboleths of Dissenters, 31. 

Sin against the Holy Ghost, 36. 

" Silly puerilities" of Catholic 
worship, 133; "pretensions," 
87. 

Sinai, no one dare to rebel there, 
161. 

Slavery and bondage not in- 



volved in Catholic Rule of 
Faith, 68; no slavery to obey 
God, 84; of private judgment, 
184; not to hear and obey 
Church, 160. 
Sleidan, 99. 

Socrates and Plato, their errors, 
201. 

Solid ground of Catholic Faith, 
114. 

Somerville, Mary, 38. 

Special inspiration, 32. 

Spiritism asked to explain future 
life, 171, 172; no remedy for 
Materialism, 173. 

Strange how Anglican clergy- 
men undertake responsibility 
of salvation of others, 209. 

Stupid things said about Im- 
maculate Conception, 146. 

Suarez on Infallibility, 260. 

Supernatural fact, one overturns 
all argument against miracles, 
219. 

Theories of unbelief seductive 

to young people, 47. 
Tortoise, on what does it rest? 

203. 

Traditional belief in the super- 
natural outside the Church, 
218. 

Turning of tables, Catholics rea- 
sonable, non-Catholics credu- 
lous, 117o 

Union of Christendom, attempts 

vain, 159. 
Unity in variety, 103. 

"Via Media" pulverized, 189; 

vicious circle, objection, 242. 
Vincent, St., of Lerins, 288. 

Whately's argument against 
Infallibility, 229; texts quoted 
by him prove the Church a 
governing power in primitive 
times, 231. 

Where is the Protestant Rule of 
Faith laid down in the Bible? 
278. 

Worship not now as in early 
days, objection, 288. 



Catholic Christianity 



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A PLAIN AND BRIEF STATEMENT 

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To those falsely attributed to her, by Christians who reject her authority, w 

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£ A. CONTRAST jjj 

May be easily drawn between the "Faith once delivered to the Saints," ^ 
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The Conflicting Theories, and Scientific Guesses of the present Age ; and 
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REFUTATION 

T© the assaults of modern Infidelity. 



rt- 



3 

BY THE CD 



RIGHT REV. J. D. RICARDS, D.D. 

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